SeaWorld’s former CEO, Jim Atchison, is being accused of suspiciously-timed sales of the company’s stock. Several investors sued SeaWorld Entertainment back in September, saying the company mislead them about how much the Blackfish film was affecting park attendance. The recently released financial report showed that park attendance was actually down by one million guests in 2014.
The complaint has been amended with statements from confidential sources, who claim that Atchison was aware of this, but failed to let shareholders know. The lawsuit claims “SeaWorld executives artificially inflated the company’s stock price in order to benefit their own personal financial situation with the proceeds from insider stock sales.”
In January 2015, Atchison left his post as the head of the company and is now serving as vice-chairman of the board and oversees the conservation fund.
Blackfish played at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013, in select theaters that summer, and was shown on CNN in November 2013. SeaWorld experienced a 3.6 decrease in their attendance, but Atchison told the Wall Street Journal, “I scratch my head if there’s any notable impact from this film at all. كازينو عبر الانترنت ” He claimed that bad weather and ticket price increase had more to do with the decline.
The lawsuit states that “Between Dec. مواقع مراهنات كرة القدم 2, 2013 and March 6, 2014, Atchison sold 154,000 shares of his personal holdings in SeaWorld stock with proceeds of $4,662,235.” This sale was 20 percent of his SeaWorld holdings.
In an August earnings report, the declining attendance was said to be due to school calendars and the fact that Walt Disney World and Universal had new attractions. They also mentioned, for the first time, that it “was impacted by demand pressures related to recent media attention surrounding proposed legislation in the state of California.” This refers to a proposed law that would ban killer whales from being used for entertainment purposes. لعبة عجلة النقود After this report, stock prices went down 33 percent. Two investors involved in the suit say they lost over $4 million as a result.
The lawsuit does not directly accuse Atchison of insider trading, but does question whether he had a financial motive for withholding information. The lawsuit says, “The sales were suspiciously timed in that they were Atchison’s only sales between SeaWorld’s Initial Public Offering in April 2013 and the stock price plunging in August 2014.”
The lawsuit states that “the defendants knew or recklessly disregarded that Blackfish was, in fact, causing a decline in SeaWorld’s attendance and negatively harming its reputation.”
News source: Click Orlando – WKMG Local 6
Photo credit: Jim Carchidi for the Orlando Business Journal
