Today Autorité des marchés financiers, which regulates the French stock market, announced €1.27 million (~$1.33 million) fines for five Ubisoft studio executives regarding insider trading. The charges accuse the executives of selling stock right before prominent Ubisoft games, like Watch Dogs, were to be delayed. Those being fined include:

• Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft Montreal CEO (€700,000)
• Francis Baillet, VP of corporate affairs (€200,000)
• Christine Burgess, worldwide studios executive director (€200,000)
• Olivier Paris, Ubisoft Montreal VP of executive operations (€100,000)
• Damien Moret, brand development director (€15,000)

Full article: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/12/09/ubisoft-studio-executives-fined-over-a-million-dollars-for-insider-trading.aspx

Background Story:

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France’s stock market regulator, alleges that Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat and four other Ubisoft executives all sold stock in the weeks before October 15, 2013, when the publisher announced that Watch Dogs and The Crew would both be delayed to 2014. As a result of this delay, the value of Ubisoft stock dropped by around 25%.

The AMF alleges that Mallat and other Ubisoft executives knew about the delay when selling their stock, violating French laws of insider trading. (Ubisoft HQ is based in Paris, France.) In an interview, Mallat told the Canadian newspaper La Presse that he had no such insider knowledge.

Full article: http://kotaku.com/ubisoft-executives-accused-of-insider-trading-1788964824

I wonder if there were any insider secrets that could help them fix Assassin's Creed.

Yeah, like the CEO of the company wouldn't know about the delay of one of their biggest games!

It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE that Mallat couldn't know about the delays. When you have inside information and you use it in stock market to your benefit, it is illegal, and he should have known better.

It's Ubisoft so I'm not surprised.

Poor Ubisoft , they can't take a break , from Vivendi , to the bad reception of their games to this .

It's honestly amazing that they seriously say he didn't have such information, he's the CEO FFS!!! Sometimes it's better to just come clean....

LOL Ubisoft... Please learn people; let them burn.

I guess he thinks he's beyond all good and evil.

Insider knowledge is such a volatile charge in the world of finance tbh, people buy and sell their stock frequently due to differing trading strategies, I remember during the training we were told you can find yourself charged just because you made one good trade. It's a tricky case because even if he did know about the delay it comes down to when he found out.