Intel CEO Sold $24 Million In Stock While Company Knew About Massive Chip Vulnerability

It has recently been reported that a massive security vulnerability affects processors from Intel spanning over the last decade. While Intel says that reports which make it seem that this vulnerability is unique to its chips are incorrect, the company’s CEO appears to have sold $24 million in stock while the company knew about this vulnerability that hadn’t been made public yet.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s $24 million windfall came after Google informed the company about a major vulnerability in its chips. He sold a combination of shares that he owned outright and exercised stock options on November 29th, 2017. The vulnerability became public just two days ago.

The vulnerability can enable attackers to steal passwords and other secret data. Intel is now working with its partners to roll out a fix. The public just found out about this but Google informed Intel about it back in June last year. This was confirmed by an Intel representative to Business Insider.

This means that Intel knew about the problem before its CEO sold $24 million in stock. Intel says that the stock sale is unrelated to this saga and that it’s a part of a planned divestiture program. It also doesn’t look good that Krzanich is now left with just 250,000 shares of Intel stock, the bare minimum he must hold as part of his employment program.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has declined to comment whether it’s looking into the stock sale. The timeline of this sale raises questions even if it’s completely unrelated. With Intel already under pressure in the public eye due to the flaw, this isn’t helping anyone.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Intel