NEW YORK -- Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing COVID-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies -- raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a global health crisis.

On the very day that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced preliminary data showing its vaccine was 90 per cent effective against the coronavirus, its chief executive Albert Bourla sold shares worth US$5.6 million.

There was nothing illegal about this, Pfizer said: the sale took place according to rules allowing company heads to sell shares under predetermined criteria, at a date or for a price set in advance, to avoid any suspicion of insider training.

Under the same rules, several Moderna officials have sold shares worth more than $100 million in recent months.

That company has not placed a single product on the market since its creation in 2010, but the federal government has committed to paying it up to $2.5 billion if its vaccine proves effective.

Moderna shares have soared from $19 at the beginning of the year to a current level of $90.

The boss of Novavax, for his part, sold $4.2 million in shares on August 18, just over a month after the announcement it would receive public financing of $1.6 billion.

Accountable US, a nonpartisan taxpayers' advocacy group, has calculated that from the start of the federally coordinated effort to develop vaccines on May 15 until Aug. 31, officials at five pharmaceutical companies made more than $145 million by selling shares.

'LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE'

Executives at Pfizer and Moderna were operating under a rule put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000 to allow company employees to sell shares without facing insider-trading charges.

It allows them to set up a plan determining the trades of their shares at a price, amount or dates specified in advance, but only when they are not in possession of privileged information that could affect share prices.

Once such a sale is planned, it cannot be modified at the last minute, even if its timing might ultimately raise questions.

Still, this use of the rule by Pfizer and Moderna appears "legally questionable," according to Daniel Taylor, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school, who has been studying the big pharma firms since the beginning of the pandemic.

"The question is, what did the executives know at the time that they pre-scheduled the trade?" he asked. ...

... Sanjai Bhagat, a professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder who specializes in corporate governance, top executives should simply not be allowed to sell company shares until a year or two after they leave the company. ...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/as-pharmaceutical-execs-sell-shares-worth-millions-questions-arise-1.5189713

In addition to his Super PAC, Stone also formed Stop The Steal, a tax-exempt organization that, due to Internal Revenue Service rules, could raise and spend unlimited amounts, but was barred from supporting (or opposing) a specific candidate. Stop The Steal, Stone explained, was initially formed to help safeguard against Republican Party insiders denying Trump the party’s nomination. The group subsequently alleged that the Clinton campaign was plotting to steal the general election--a warning echoed by Trump and Jones--and claimed to be arranging for independent exit polls to be conducted on November 8.

Stop The Steal, IRS records show, raised about $40,000. While the group has not been disbanded, visitors to stopthesteal.org are redirected to Stone’s personal web site.

For an organization purportedly dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the voting process, Stone’s group made a series of odd expenditures in December:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/investigation/roger-stone-and-guccifer-913684