Tony Hayward Sold One Third of His BP Shares Just Weeks Before 'Spill' ....WHY?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Why is this not even being discussed by anyone in the media?

Especially in light of England's PM saying that the U.S.'s is causing BP stock to fall and it is hurting their citizens pension pay outs....It seems to me that Haywood did that.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7804922/BP-chief-Tony-Hayward-sold-shares-weeks-before-oil-spill.html

The chief executive of BP sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused its value to collapse.


Tony Hayward: 'This won't stop deep-water drilling. It will transform it'

Tony Hayward cashed in about a third of his holding in the company one month before a well on the Deep water Horizon rig burst, causing an environmental disaster.

Mr Hayward, whose pay package is £4 million a year, then paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at more than £1.2 million.


There is no suggestion that he acted improperly or had prior knowledge that the company was to face the biggest setback in its history.

His decision, however, means he avoided losing more than £423,000 when BP’s share price plunged after the oil spill began six weeks ago.

Since he disposed of 223,288 shares on March 17, the company’s share price has fallen by 30 per cent. About £40 billion has been wiped off its total value. The fall has caused pain not just for BP shareholders, but also for millions of company pension funds and small investors who have money held in tracker funds.

Read more and at "related articles" link on left of page:...http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7804922/BP-chief-Tony-Hayward-sold-shares-weeks-before-oil-spill.html

[DrDan]

1. he obviously knew it was going to blow . . . .

:banghead:

[ladjf]

7. I can't tell whether you are "kidding" or not. On the serious side

that maybe he did have some prior-knowledge about the well: It was already known by his sale date that there were some serious rock fracture issues related to the well that blew. In fact, at one point, I believe that I read that they were considering closing or abandoning the project.

I'll research this.

[napi21]

2. I'm sure somebody is looking into the transactio. I don't know anything about the way

the London stock exchange works, but in the US when a major stockholder sells shares, they have to file a Form 8 explaining why they're selling them. I feel reasonable sure London has some similar rules.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Why? Despite being a Brit, he's got Republicon Family Values

Ptooey

[hedgehog]

4. Oh, please - the answer is right in the article

he "paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at more than £1.2 million"

It looked like a good time to cash in.

Either that or he sold a third of his shares, get 2/3 as a cover, then plotted to destroy the Gulf of Mexico and BP by having a subordinate fly out to the rig and arrange to cut all safety measures until the rig blew with himself and a mess of other junior execs aboard in order to achieve his goals for

WORLD DOMINATION!


mw-ha-ha ha!

[AnArmyVeteran]

13. I'll pick choice 'B' :)

Poor guy had to pay off his mortgage. It looks like he was on the financial ropes like most of us. He only was pulling in a paltry 4 million a year and only got stock options and perks that were greater than what most people make in many lifetimes.

I wonder if British law is the same as US law, where even if a rich person steals billions they are allowed to keep their mansions. If that is the case then by paying off his house early would mean he was protecting his money by putting it into the house where it could be protected. But of course, under corporate law virtually every dime a corporate executive makes is insulated from personal liability. The rest of us would lose everything, our houses, cars, everything to pay someone who we wronged. But not for corporate executives who write laws protecting themselves.

It's time we changed the system.

[Urban Prairie]

21. Not sure if the world that "he" meaning "they" would eventually dominate

Will be worth it, in a worst-case scenario. If that comes to fruition, he (they) can have it, lock, stock and tens of billions of barrels of oil soaked/covered planet.:mad:

There is always that pesky and tick-tocking "mortality" issue, and his (their) possible "reward" for probably dooming many if not most of the "Creator's" creatures in any afterlife. I'm an agnostic, but IF there really is a Heaven and Hell, I am pretty sure that those directly and indirectly responsible for this ongoing catastrophic ecocide would receive Satan's prime first class reservations for rooms in the deepest bowels of Hades, along with the other notoriously evil men/women in history who would already be there...:evilfrown:

Since it is unlikely that those responsible will not quickly suffer the same fate in the same manner as the wildlife in the GOM and perhaps ultimately most if not all life planet-wide, I really and truly am beginning to fervently hope now that there will be a "Judgement Day" for each of those of whom could very well turn out to be the most heinously greedy and murderous human parasites in Earth's recorded history.:grr:

Heyward recently stated that he wants his "life" back, well, I doubt very much that the "life" that he wants back will ever again be the same as it was before the catastrophe, even if the gusher was plugged today or over a month ago. He should be tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison at the very least, IMO, along with everyone else below him in corporate rank who is in any degree culpable for this calamitous fuckup. That also includes those in the MMS or any other government agency who accepted bribes to look the other way, in the form of money, drugs, and sex, and the Executive Office (Cheney) who conspired in permitting Big Oil to cut corners in safety procedures and backup systems/equipment for drilling offshore at any depth.

[nichomachus]

24. Oh please. why would you pay off a mortgage?

Common wisdom for someone in his position is that you don't. And, if he thought the shares were going to increase, then he would have held on to them to make even more money.

You only sell huge holdings in stock when you think (or know) it's going to tank.

[dipsydoodle]

5. It was

when that old news was released. You'll find here on DU a week or so back if you search. There were upsides and down sides - nothing particularly insidious at all.

[leveymg]

6. Goldman Sachs also sold off 44% of its BP shares at about the same time

See, http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Holding=Institutional+Ownership&Symbol=BP as reported here at DU by Forkboy: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8467934

[ElsewheresDaughter]

9. ah...thank you Forkboy and I thank you for the links.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. What???? I missed that completely.

You gotta admit that is interesting "co-incidence", and when GS is involved in anything, I do tend to
get very alert.
I do know stories are coming out that there was known problems with the well in the weeks preceding
the explosion.

I do know that if you kill off all the life in the Gulf, as they seem to be doing with Corexit and oil,
it would reduce the need for those pesky environmental concerns in future drilling.

However, it makes no sense that any oil company would want all their precioussssssss oil flowing into
the Gulf and Atlantic instead of into refineries.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. Read the locked Forkboy link but, it doesn't mention Haywoods sale of 1/3 of his BP shares in it.

I find Forkboy's thread and this news very interesting.

[Brickbat]

8. He did it to pay off a mortgage. Sometimes a sell-off is just a sell-off.

[Statistical]

12. In related news Tony kept 2/3rd of his shares before the explosion. WHY?

446576 not sold * $4.795 decline per UK share = $2.1 million.

[hedgehog]

14. For what it's worth, here is a picture of a 1.2 million pound mansion in London:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article43731.ece

[doc03]

15. Here we go get your tin foil hats on MIHOP LIHOP n/t

[Johonny]

16. I'm sure he'll go to jail like Martha Stewart

right?

[Warpy]

17. Oh, please. This is not proof of any sort of prescience or conspiracy.

The last thing those bozos wanted was a disaster. They honestly thought that wrecked BOP would not be a problem, that they'd seal that well and grab all that oil and be in fat city for some time to come.

He dumped that stock because he'd made a huge profit on it and wanted to grab something else out there that was on its way up, or maybe he just felt he needed to diversify. That's what the big investors do.

If he'd known what was going to happen, especially if he had been planning it, he'd have dumped more than a third of it.

[TheMadMonk]

18. Luck doesn't care if you're an arsehole or struggling mother of five.

It visit's those it will. Nothing nefarious here methinks.

[treestar]

19. This is going to go the way of the insider trading just before 911

With the tinfoil hat brigade.

[Junkdrawer]

20. Risk Management - He knew that his orders to ignore safety and increase production...

had risks so he (and Goldman Sachs) hedged their bets.

[meow mix]

22. thats what i thought too, president tony was worried about the insane risks

looks pretty obvious to me

[Junkdrawer]

23. Tom Tomorrow: "If more businesses operated like Goldman Sachs..."

[Arkana]

25. I don't think it's because he had foreknowledge of the rig blowing.

Still, it's awful scummy of him to do.

[KurtNYC]

26. Who knew it was leaking? and when did they know? n/t

[cbdo2007]

27. Would you feel better if he lost Million$$$ on the transaction??

You don't know what $$ he bought the shares for but he would have had more money if he had sold 2 months sooner or one month later, so this has to be a fluke. Remember just a few years ago before the crash BP was trading at $70+ so if he got the shares then he may be losing money.

Also, why would he just sell 1/3 of the shares and not all of them? that's crazy.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

28. They prob have a law preventing him from selling off all of his shares at once &he didn't buy shit

They were given to him as perk

what are you Haywoods PR person?