Former EROAD employee Marc Sansom has been found not guilty in New Zealand’s first ever insider trading trial.
The verdict was reached by jury at the Auckland High Court on September 22.
Sansom was charged with insider trading by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) after selling 15,000 Eroad shares for about $50,000 just days before its stock price plummeted.
Jeffery Peter Honey, another former Eroad employee, was charged and sentenced to six months home detention last year for sending confidential information to Sansom.
Sansom sold his shares two days after receiving the information from Honey by text message.
However, the jury accepted Sansom’s defense that he had already planned to sell his shares to pay a debt and the unsolicited information he received was a coincidence of timing, Stuff reports.
The verdict was a retrial after the an original hung jury decision in March.
The FMA says in a statement it “acknowledges the verdict and will fully consider the outcome of this case”.
“Insider trading, market manipulation and other unethical trading activity undermines market integrity and erodes investor confidence in New Zealand’s financial markets.
“The FMA will continue to investigate cases involving potential insider trading and based on the evidence obtained, refer these matters to the courts,” it says.
