Following the announcement that David Baazov, founder and CEO of Canadian gambling giant Amaya Inc., is facing insider trading charges, the company issued a statement, saying that it fully supports its Chief Executive and that the said charges are not likely to have any significant impact on its management as well as daily affairs and operations.
It was announced yesterday that the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), known to be Quebec’s securities regulator, has charged Mr. Baazov for allegedly aiding with trades while being in possession of confidential information about his company, influencing or at least attempting to influence Amaya securities’ market price, and communicating confidential information.
Some of the charges, the ones involving the communication of privileged information and the attempt to influence Amaya’s market price, were related to a certain former financial advisor to the gambling operator.
Shortly after Mr. Baazov and his company acquired the Rational Group, owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt, for the amount of $4.9 billion, the AMF launched an investigation of the deal, which was actually the most expensive one in the online gambling industry. As mentioned above, the regulator found enough information to claim that Mr. Baazov and other Amaya-related respondents used privileged information about the company’s securities in the period between December 2013 and June 2014 for certain trading purposes.
Amaya Lead Director and independent board member Dave Gadhia said in a Wednesday statement that Mr. Baazov “has the full support” of all independent board members. Mr. Gadhia also pointed out that the company had itself conducted an internal review of the activities related to the acquisition of the Rational Group in August 2014 and had not found any evidence of violations of the Canadian securities regulations and laws.
Amaya pointed out that the latest events will not likely impact its day-to-day operations and that they will continue as usual with no changes in the operator’s product offering. In addition, no negative effects related to the operator’s current and future licenses, regulatory approvals, and partnerships are likely to occur, following the charges against Mr. Baazov.
Amaya revealed that it provided the AMF with a considerable amount of information about the period before the company purchased the Rational Group, particularly the time span the regulator has been investigating. The gambling operator also noted that it would keep on cooperating with the securities authority as its has done since 2014, when the investigation was launched.
