ATLANTA (AP) — A former Equifax manager has been sentenced to serve eight months home confinement after pleading guilty to insider trading in the wake of the company’s massive data breach last year.
A federal judge also ordered Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu to forfeit the money gained through insider trading and to pay a $50,000 fine. Bonthu, who worked as a software product development manager for the credit-reporting agency, pleaded guilty in July.
Prosecutors say Bonthu used nonpublic information to determine that Equifax had been breached before any public announcement. Prosecutors say he then bought put options in Equifax stock before the breach was announced and made about $75,000 when he exercised those put options after the announcement.
Equifax shares plunged in value after the Atlanta-based company disclosed the breach on Sept. 7, 2017.
