Former Equifax executive charged with insider trading

ATLANTA — Insider trading charges were announced Wednesday against a former Equifax executive who sold his shares for nearly $1 million before the company’s massive data breach was revealed to the public and the stock price plunged.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Jun Ying, 42, the former chief information officer of Equifax’s U.S. Information Solutions, part of the Atlanta-based credit reporting company. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday also charged Ying with insider trading.

In an emailed statement, lawyers Douglas Koff and Craig Warkol, who are representing Ying, declined to comment. The SEC and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said federal investigations are ongoing. Ying is the only former Equifax executive named in Tuesday’s indictment.

Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and three other executives sold shares worth a combined $1.8 million days after Equifax discovered suspicious activity on its network — and nearly a month before Ying sold his shares — but Equifax said an independent committee determined that these other executives did not know of the breach when their trades were made.

A total of about 147.9 million Americans have been impacted by Equifax’s data breach, which remains the largest exposure of personal information in history. It was disclosed to the public on Sept. 7.