Kodak shares plunge after U.S. pauses loan until ‘allegations of wrongdoing’ are resolved

Last Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an insider trading investigation. On July 27, day before the loan was announced, more than 1 million shares of Kodak stock exchanged hands, versus the typical daily average of 236,479, she said in a letter to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. Its stock price jumped 20 percent that day, she wrote, and more than 200 percent on July 28, when the loan was announced.

Warren also noted that shortly before the announcement, Kodak Executive Chairman James Continenza bought about 46,700 shares. The purchase “while the company was involved in secret negotiations with the government over a lucrative contract raises questions about whether these executives potentially made investment decisions based on material, non-public information derived from their positions,” Warren said. Continenza has regularly purchased Kodak shares since joining the company in 2013 and hasn’t sold a single share, Kodak said.