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Dear Steven W.,

I'd thought that top executives in publicly-traded companies had to file a statement with the SEC some time before they sold shares of their company.

That means that this transaction had been planned for a bit, and was likely not a reaction to the current crisis.

sitetest

I'd thought that top executives in publicly-traded companies had to file a statement with the SEC some time before they sold shares of their company.

That is true but not fully relevant in the following respects; they (the execs) typically plan ahead for things like this by filing their papers indicating their intent to sell early on, knowing that, then, something's available to dump if & when the time arises. I too don't believe this would qualify as insider trading because he's reacting to public reports while his CBS insiders try and convince him & everybody that their story is true. The only way insider trading would apply in this case IMO would be if, internally, admissions & recognition were that the story was false and they were conspiring to mislead the public and investors. In this case and think Rather, Mapes et. al. are still lying to themselves as well as everybody else, including Redstone, but he came to another conclusion by himself. The next quarterly filing must loom large for Redstone with the mandates of new corporate finance regulations & Redstone is going to have to assure all the facts & other warnings are disclosed properly as he'll have to sign the bottom line, lest he then get the SEC after his tail. I would imagine just the apparent impropriety of it all won't stop the likes of trial lawyers to pursue a class action shareholder lawsuit regardless (simply because that's what they do). Maybe that's why John Edwards can't be found on the campaign trail ... he's readying his next big gig following the election ROFLMAO

Dear Steven W.,
I'd thought that top executives in publicly-traded companies had to file a statement with the SEC some time before they sold shares of their company.

That means that this transaction had been planned for a bit, and was likely not a reaction to the current crisis.

the producer of the segment is reported to of worked on it for 5 years, they had to advance notice that they were ready to put it on the air. He was just thinking ahead knowing that the segment would produce a backlash against CBS

Well yes and no. They have to file their intention to sell shares during a certain time period. They are not required to sell the shares at that time. There also are time periods when they cannot sell shares.

They can also file a notice that states that when the stock hits X I will sell Y number of shares.

There are several ways an insider can sell shares.