Not rubbing me the wrong way I voted against the shares to pay the tax but the majority did not. As a matter of principle I would vote the same way again. But that is past history and the CEO did not do anything wrong and the company sold the shares exactly as it was directed to do by the shareholders. We did not like it so we are together on this point. I was staggered by the numbers who claimed they did not know it was going to happen. They must have said yes as a large majority voted for it and logic implies they voted yes to something they did not understand. Investing 101 understand your investment.
As for the insider trading issue logic defeats your statement about blackouts. If a company wanted to engage in insider trading it would just never declare a blackout period and then insider trading could go on flat out without consequence. Declaring a blackout is carrying out its corporate duty as required by the ASX to make clear to employees and Board members that they should not insider trade but you can still break the law and insider trade outside of a blackout. If this was not the case how can someone who is not employed by the company be charged and convicted of insider trading as companies do not ordinarily announce publicly they are in blackout nor is there an obligation to issue a notice via the ASX. Committing a criminal offence is personal you cannot shift your liability by saying someone else did not tell me it was wrong to rob the bank. Remember ignorance of the law is no excuse. All a blackout period does is makes it easier to prove that the person employed by the company was in absolutely no doubt that they should not be trading. At every other time the law against insider trading continues to operate and they have to follow the law. Simple.
Anyway you are not rubbing me the wrong way in fact my whole career was based on other lawyers and their clients incorrectly interpreting the law. Their mistakes made me a lot of money after they refused to accept the merit of what I was putting for my client/s.
My opinion only DYOR.
BRN Price at posting:
66.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)