Top executives with the Silicon Valley Bank sold their shares just weeks before the collapse.
The bank, which was used by numerous startups and tech companies in Silicon Valley, collapsed into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership on Friday
It is the largest bank to fail since Washington Mutual in 2008.
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New York Post reports: Two of Silicon Valley Bank’s top chiefs dumped millions of dollars worth of stock just two weeks before the firm collapsed Friday, records show.
CEO Greg Becker offloaded over $3.5 million worth of stocks — which amounted to nearly 12,500 shares — in a pre-planned, automated sell-off on Feb. 27, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
That same day, the bank’s third-in-command CFO Daniel Beck sold $575,180 in stocks, Newsweek reported.
Silicon Valley Bank, the once leading tech lender, was shut down by federal authorities just 11 days later.
Becker and Beck sold off their massive stakes in a legal corporate trading plan established by the SEC to thwart insider trading, so it is not clear whether the CEO and CFO knew the company would collapse in just two weeks.
SVB did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The firm was abruptly shut down Friday by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation due to liquidity fears.
Employees of the failed Silicon Valley Bank were also given their annual bonuses only hours before the bank failed and was taken over by regulators.
CNBC reported yesterday that hours before the bank failed, the bank paid its employees their annual bonuses:
Silicon Valley Bank employees received their annual bonuses Friday just hours before regulators seized the failing bank, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
The Santa Clara, California-based bank has historically paid employee bonuses on the second Friday of March, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the awards. The payments were for work done in 2022 and had been in process days before the bank’s collapse, the sources said.
