A little while ago the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), a body that monitors and regulates the stock market in France accused a handful of Ubisoft's executives of insider trading. Ubisoft of course refuted those claims, but now the AMF have decided they are convinced enough of wrongdoing to issue sanctions against the individuals accused to a combined tune of €1.2 million.
AMF have alleged that during a period in early October of 2013, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat and four other executives sold up stock, knowing that the company's share prices would drop when it was announced that both Watch Dogs and The Crew were going to be delayed until 2014. Both games at the time were very anticipated and the value of Ubisoft's stock did indeed drop by 25% in the wake of the announcements.
The breakdown of fines levied are as follows:
- Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat - €700,000
- Ubisoft VP of corporate affairs Francis Baillet - €200,000
- Ubisoft worldwide studios exec director Christine Burgess - €200 000
- Ubisoft Montreal VP of executive operations Olivier Paris - €100,000
- Ubisoft brand development director Damien Moret - €15,000
Ubisoft have said that they intend to appeal the decision against them. Their argument hinges on saying that Mallat nor any of the other four had any sort of insider knowledge that they would have acted upon when deciding to sell on shares.
"Ubisoft acknowledges the AMF’s decision, but continues to assert that the people involved acted in good faith," a Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We are convinced that these team members did not intentionally commit any acts contrary to market regulations."
They went on to say that "the processes and timetables" that are involved in the making and production of major games at Ubisoft mean that there was no possible way that any of the five could have been aware of or anticipate Yves Guillemon's decision to delay the games' release dates. They also said that "the AMF’s decision represents a serious misunderstanding of the game development and production process at our company and common to our industry."
