ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — There are still questions swirling online surrounding Kodak’s CEO, Jim Continenza, purchasing stock shares a month before the company received a $765 million federal loan. Some are wondering whether insider trading went on.
Brighton Securities chairman George Conboy said there’s one big question remaining: were these stocks prescheduled as part of a normal investment or were they a one-time purchase ahead of this big announcement for Kodak?
“In most cases when senior corporate executives either buy or sell stock in their own company it’s typically done on a regular schedule where the corporate officer does not choose the date,” said Conboy.
The SEC filing shows a purchase of just under 47,000 shares by Continenza on June 23, making his total number of Kodak shares 650,000.
Kodak said this in a statement to News 8 on Wednesday evening:
The stock purchases you refer to are a continuation of Jim Continenza’s ongoing, regular investments in Kodak and are in full compliance with regulatory guidelines for investment activity. Since joining Kodak as Executive Chairman in February 2019, Mr. Continenza has purchased 650,000 shares of Kodak stock. As reflected in Mr. Continenza’s SEC filings
(https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/31235/000089183920000200/xslF345X03/edgar.xml ), the 46,737 shares purchased on June 23rd represent a very small portion of Mr. Continenza’s interest in the company. Mr. Continenza is Kodak’s largest individual shareholder and his consistent investments in Kodak reflects his continued belief in the potential of the company.
Conboy said since Continenza has owned Kodak shares for years and made many purchases, it’s not implausible he would buy more now.
“If we can come up with a series of stock purchases from the CEO on some regular schedule that would seem to indicate this recent purchase was part of an ongoing purchase plan.”
He also said in order to determine if something is insider trading, it must be an act with material and nonpublic information.
“This information fits the definition of material and nonpublic the question is did he act based on that knowledge or did he act in conjunction with regularly scheduled purchases?”
News 8 reached out to Kodak and the SEC to see if they’re conducting an investigation into the situation. Kodak said they have no comment on potential or ongoing investigations. The SEC declined to comment.
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