Footballer Gerard Pique fined 200,000 euros for insider trading on the stock exchange

Former FC Barcelona and Spanish national team defender Gerard Pique has been fined 200,000 euros for insider trading, the Financial Times reports.

The transaction that triggered the fine was made by Pique five years ago while he was recovering from an injury, Spanish financial regulator CNMV said. However, no investigation into the player has yet been reported.

According to the regulator, in January 2021, Piqué received insider information that Spanish healthcare provider Atrys Health was in talks to take over occupational health and safety company Aspy Global Services. On Jan. 20 of that year, Peake bought 104,166 shares of the company. Two days later, the talks were announced publicly, and on January 26, Atrys submitted a bid to buy Aspy for €223 million. The deal was closed in May.

Aspy shares rose nearly 20 percent from the time Pique bought the company and by market close on Jan. 27, when the soccer player closed his position.

Exactly how much money the former Barcelona defender earned on this deal, the Spanish regulator did not specify. Fines can reach up to four times the amount of the profit made from the illegal trade, the Financial Times writes. The businessman who, according to CNMV, divulged insider information to Pique was fined 100,000 euros. The FT was unable to contact the footballer and his alleged informant. Both can appeal the fines to the Spanish Supreme Court.

The sports sector is increasingly intertwined with big money, as evidenced by the fact that several sports stars have been implicated in insider trading cases in recent years, the FT notes.

In 2016, golfer Phil Mickelson bought shares in food manufacturer Dean Foods on the advice of professional golfer William Walters, who had made a fortune in sports betting. The day after the purchase, it became known that Dean Foods was spinning off its organic foods subsidiary into a separate company. The company's stock soared 40%. Mickelson agreed to return his profits - $931,000 - and was not charged in the case. Walters was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10 million. US President Donald Trump later commuted his sentence.

Last year, Trump pardoned former Tottenham Hotspur soccer club owner Joe Lewis. The British billionaire was fined $5 million and given three years probation for insider trading in 2024, but avoided jail time in part because of his age - he was 86. According to the prosecution, Lewis passed insider information to his girlfriend, friends and private jet pilots, who together made more than half a million dollars on the stock market.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor