Silicon Valley Bank Top Bosses Sold Over $4 Million Of Stock Days Before Historic Failure

As one of the most prominent lenders in the world of technology startups, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday. Two of its top bosses sold $3.6 million of company stock under a trading plan less than two weeks before the firm disclosed extensive losses that led to its failure, according to Newsweek.

The news outlet reported that a February 27 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that SVB President and CEO Greg Becker sold $3,578,652.31 in common stock two weeks before SVB was shut down by federal regulators on Friday morning. 

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Since he sold 12,451 of his approximately 98,000 shares, the $3.5 million represented 10% of the equity he owned.

Daniel Beck, the bank's chief financial officer, sold $575,180 worth of equities on the same day in February, according to a separate US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Silicon Valley Bank was closed on Friday by California banking regulators. This is the biggest retail banking failure since the global financial crisis in 2008. US regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and took control of its deposits, in what amounts to the biggest retail banking failure since the global financial crisis.

The move came after a dramatic 48 hours that saw the high-tech lender's share price plummet amid a run on deposits by concerned customers.

After making a huge fortune by investing in tech startups, Silicon Valley Bank invested most of its assets in US bonds. To bring down the inflation rates, the federal reserve last year began raising interest rates, which resulted in the bond values going down.