Associated Press
SEATTLE — The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating stock sales by Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos just before a negative report on the company was released, The New York Times reported yesterday.
The commission would neither confirm nor deny an investigation. The commission typically only makes investigations public when an action is taken, SEC spokeswoman Carol Patterson said.
Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said the Seattle-based Internet retailing giant wasn't aware of any investigation. "If there proves to be one we're certainly going to be happy to help in any way we can,'' he said.
Bezos filed documents with regulators on Feb. 2 and Feb. 5 stating that he intended to sell 800,000 shares of Amazon stock worth roughly $12.2 million. Curry confirmed that Bezos had sold the shares, which he said represents about one-third of all the shares Bezos has sold.
Prior to that, Amazon executives received an advance copy of a research report compiled by Lehman Brothers that questioned the company's ability to continue operating through 2001.
The report also speculated that Amazon's deteriorating financial situation could subject it to a credit squeeze later this year.
Curry said Amazon executives had seen the report and had attempted to persuade Lehman Brothers that the conclusions were erroneous. Amazon contends that it will finish the year with $900 million in cash.
Curry said the company did not know exactly when the report would be released, and that the sales were not timed to the report's release. He also contends the report did not release new information, since Lehman Brothers' analysts had questioned whether Amazon could survive before.
Under federal regulations, executives such as Bezos can only legally sell stock at certain times. That window closes if executives become privy to information not available in the public that could strongly influence the future of the company and its stock.
To win an insider trading case, the government would have to prove that Bezos acted improperly on information that had a material effect on the company's stock but was not publicly available.
Shares of Amazon were up 56.2 cents, or nearly 5 percent, to close at $12.25 a share Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
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