Former Equifax manager pleads guilty to insider trading

A former manager at Equifax in Atlanta has pleaded guilty to insider trading for buying options ahead of the public announcement about Equifax’s massive data breach last summer. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, 44, who was a software development manager at the credit reporting agency, bought put options that allowed him to reap more than $75,000 in profits when Equifax’s stock fell following the breach announcement, according to U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak in Atlanta. Mr. Bonthu will be sentenced in October. Equifax’s former chief information officer, Jun Ying, was charged with insider trading linked to the breach earlier this year. He has pleaded not guilty.

Walmart testing automated carts to speed up grocery orders

on the Alphabot, which it’s testing in Salem, N.H. The mobile carts move up and down and sideways to retrieve items faster than if workers walked the aisles. Workers will still handpick produce, meat and other fresh products, and assemble, pack and bring the order out to shoppers. Walmart says it’ll hire the usual number of workers at the test store.

1st year of Nevada marijuana sales smokes expectations

Nevada regulators and industry insiders say the state’s first year of broad marijuana legalization has exceeded even their highest expectations, with sales and tax collections already surpassing year-end projections by 25 percent. Numbers from June are still outstanding but are expected to push taxable sales past $500 million, netting total tax revenue in the neighborhood of $70 million — with about $25 million devoted to schools. A legal battle over distribution licenses made for a rocky start last July, but Nevada’s $195 million in sales for the first six months dwarfed the totals in Washington state ($67 million) and Colorado ($114 million) for the first halfyear of legal sales in those states in 2014.