Swedish Economic Crime Authority released two executives of the Swedish technology innovator Fingerprint Cards AB who were taken into custody a day earlier. They were questioned for alleged insider trading.
The two executives are member of the Board Lars Söderfjell and shareholders and former CEO Johan Carlstrom. They were arrested for suspicion of insider trading on Monday, Jan. 23, as reported by Bloomberg. Fingerprint Cards AB is known as the company that develops biometric sensors for security purpose. The shares of the company have grown exponentially since 2015 and gave the shareholders a substantial gain.
Söderfjell and Carlstrom were arrested because of the suspicion from the financial authorities of Sweden with the huge amount of sales of the shares which were registered before Dec. 8 profit warning. That happened before the company’s stock was down 18 percent.
The arrest and allegation sent a surprising news to the company. The company’s shares plunged 6.4 percent to the lowest point in 15 months. In responding to the arrest, Chairman of the Board at Fingerprint Cards Jan Wäreby pledged to fully cooperate with the financial authority of Sweden.
"We take very seriously on these events,“ Wäreby said following the arrest. “We are of course cooperating with the Swedish Economic Crime Authority",
They were released on Tuesday, Jan. 24 according to Reuters. However, the financial authority of Sweden will continue to investigate the suspicion of insider trading.
The company has the main business to develop the electronic system that able to analyze individual’s fingertip patterns. The technology can be used in cellular phones, smart cards, access cards and digital security products.
Its main product is called Fingerprints Biometric Module DevKit, which basically a fingerprint card development toolkit. The toolkit allows its customers to develop the biometric interface for their needs. The company is now led by CEO Christian Fredrikson with four other board members.
