SVB CEO Greg Becker cashed out $2M just before the collapse

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/silicon-valley-bank-ceo-greg-becker-cashed-out-2-million-just-before-the-collapse-e45c6b53

by marymkearney • 3 years ago

47 24 3 years ago

marketwatch.com

sp3322• 3 years ago

The sales were part of a prearranged executive stock sale plan, known as a 10b5-1 program, that Becker filed with the SEC... Jan. 26

swyx• 3 years ago

seriously, this is the cheapest clickbait and fortunately nobody important is making a big story out of this.

mackman• 3 years ago

You really don’t think he knew this was coming six weeks ago?

__derek__• 3 years ago

It was "prearranged" by one month. This honestly just demonstrates how easy it is to game 10B5-1 plans.

I submitted this guy's newsletter separately, but it appears that SVB also lacked a Chief Risk Officer for most of 2022 and failed to explicitly disclose that until March 8 (i.e. two days ago).[1] It all looks pretty shady.

[1] https://nongaap.substack.com/p/sivb-held-to-mortem-governanc... (submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35098617)

marymkearney2• 3 years ago

Yes, this, thanks. The missing Chief Risk Officer is an issue. It's not necessarily nefarious, but the optics aren't great either.

Edited to not repeat what you said. :)

foobarian2• 3 years ago

It’s like saying so-and-so ate bread 48 hours before they got a heart attack.

uoaei• 3 years ago

No, it's like saying that it's ok that if you're rich enough you deserve to be first in line for heart transplants in the eventuality that you have a heart attack.

foobarian2• 3 years ago

How does that follow? The guy probably cashes out that amount every quarter. So when there is an event like this of course you will find he cashed out what to us little people is a huge amount of money.

If it's a one-off then yea it's suspicious.

mikekij2• 3 years ago

It appears as though he sold exactly the number of shares required to cover the cost of exercising options that were about to expire with his after-tax proceeds. This does not seem to me to be a nefarious transaction.

rqtwteye• 3 years ago

Probably not nefarious. It's still annoying that the big guys can make millions while running a company into the ground.

mikekij2• 3 years ago

To be clear, he likely has millions of shares of stock in SVB that are now worth exactly $0. He could end up being personally liable for SVB employee’s pay.

In general, I too hate when the “rich people” win despite screwing up. This doesn’t appear to be that sort of situation.

boeingUH603• 3 years ago

He has been selling blocks of shares since 2018 [1] like any other executive aware that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket.

According to the most recent SEC insider sale filing, he still owns about 100,000 shares in the bank. If he was that cunny...why won't he have sold them? Doesn't absorb him of carelessness in running the bank, but this is clickbait for the ignorant and perpetually angry.

1- https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/ciks=0001259867&entityNam...

j_crick2• 3 years ago

why won't he have sold them?

To make the case for "hey it’s not that" if needed, for example?

boeingUH603• 3 years ago

No need to attribute to malice when sheer incompetence can explain it.

sowbug• 3 years ago

You used a word I've never seen, in the phrase "If he was that [...]"

I looked it up, and I really doubt you meant that word. Curious what you did mean. Was it "canny"?

(As an ardent Wordle player, I'm always on the lookout for new five-letter words.)

pwnmonkey• 3 years ago

I think they meant cunning.

ashwagary• 3 years ago

I made the mistake of searching that word, I don't recommend it.

flylib• 3 years ago

jail

marymkearney2• 3 years ago

There was a more recent transaction: $3.6M on Feb. 27, "the first time in more than a year that Becker had sold shares in parent company SVB Financial Group." So, update "6 weeks ago" to "11 days ago," does it look different? Maybe.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-10/svb-chief...

SVB CEO Greg Becker cashed out $2M just before the collapse

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