Posted by Nadia Baksh.
Amaya Inc. is a Canadian gambling website who has recently been sued by US investor, Harry Weisman. This company defrauded shareholders by hiding insider trading through their chief executive, David Baazov.
Harry Weisman, the plaintiff, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Manhattan stating that, “Amaya should have revealed trades made by chief executive, David Baazov, and failed to properly disclose deficiencies in its internal controls.” Daniel Sebag, Amaya’s financial chief officer was named a defendant aside from David Baazov. Amaya’s share price were increasing while Baazov’s trades were being kept hidden. The lawsuit is planning to recover the losses of investors who bought Amaya’s shares from the time period of June 8, 2015 through March 23, 2016.
Within the previous week, Amaya’s shares decreased rapidly due to Quebec’s securities regulator, l’Autorité des Marchés Financiers, brought up charges against their chief executive about insider trading. Data shows that the company’s U.S. listed shares that trade through NASDAQ fell approximately 22% whereas the Canadian shares fell about 21% on March 23. This can be a common occurrence where U.S. securities lawsuits are filed against businesses; the bad news can lead to their stocks to fall.
Amaya announced that Baazov was taking an immediate and indefinite leave of absence, however, it will be a paid leave of absence. I do not feel as if David Baazov’s absence should be paid, because he already caused trouble and brought upon negative attention towards the Amaya company; he should pay for what he did–not be paid for his wrongful actions.
Nadia is an accounting major at the Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, Class of 2019.