NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission isinvestigating stock sales by a member of French bank Societe Generale’s board, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday on its Web site.
The report said the SEC was probing stock sales of Robert A. Day, aboard member and investment manager with U.S.-based Trust Co of theWest, and two foundations associated with him.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper saidDay and the foundations sold about $140 million of the bank’s stockabout two weeks before the bank notified its board about the billionsof dollars in trading losses.
The bank on January 24 publicly revealed $7.3 billion in trading losses that it blamed on a single rogue trader, Jerome Kerviel.
The bank has already said Day sold during a window of time wheresuch trades were permitted under Societe Generale’s trading policiesfor directors.
"No inside information was used in any way with respect to theseDecember and January sales," the bank said January 29. "Mr. Day, likethe other board members, was not advised of Mr. Kerviel’s tradinglosses."
The U.S. Justice Department has also begun a probe, the Journal said. No further details were immediately available.
The FBI would not confirm or deny the report. The SEC had nocomment. The bank had no comment and the Justice Department was notimmediately available to comment.
(Reporting by Christian Plumb, Randy Mikkelsen, Rachelle Younglai; editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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