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CVM fine the former managers of HRT for 'insider'

September 13, 2016 [18:04]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) condemned the HRT administration of former directors, Antonio Carlos de Agostini and John Forman for negotiating oil company's shares using inside information. The two sold company shares before the disclosure of material facts revealed the existence of dry wells in its portfolio in Namibia in 2013. The fines in the process amounted to R $ 795,000.

At the time, the negative information on operations in Namibia overthrew HRT shares on the stock exchange. The CVM has fined Agostini at $ 456,560, a figure that is double the loss avoided by him with the sale of company's shares on July 17 and September 5, 2013. The fine imposed on Forman by sales in July 2013 followed the same criteria, reaching R $ 338,500. Both can still appeal to the Board of Appeals of the National Financial System.

The first relevant fact published by HRT on 19 July 2013, stating the absence of oil and gas in Murombe-1 well. In trading following the announcement the shares opened in fall of 14.85%, quoted at R $ 1.72. The same dynamic was repeated in September of that year, when on 9 HRT issued a statement stating that Moosehead-1 well, also in Namibia, was considered dry. Again the shares collapsed over the closing price of the date of publication of the news.

Experts in the oil sector, Agostini and Forman were part of the oil company's board of directors between 2009 and 2012. In the indictment, the Office of Market Relations and Intermediaries (SMI) CVM took into account the proximity of managers to administrators who continued HRT at the time of evaluation of wells in Namibia, as the then CEO Milton Franke and advisor Marcio Rocha Mello, which would be a way for the leak of information.

The accused denied access to inside information. The defenses of Agostini and Forman highlighted his decades of experience in oil and that both were already away from HRT after diverge's leading line administration. They claimed that the two sold only part of their company's shares, in the case of Forman, less than 30% of the portfolio, taking into account that the oil company's shares had suffered devaluation since the beginning of the Namibian exploration campaign.

The CVM analyzed telephone conversations made between the accused and intermediates of brokerage firms to set sales operations and on the same date, the future repurchase. For the local authority was clear there prior conviction about the future behavior of the stock. Forman even states textually the employees of Credit Suisse that should sell "because the news due out late this afternoon or tomorrow morning", which for the prosecution revealed that he had access to privileged information and operated as a result of them.

On the other hand, the CVM director, Roberto Tadeu, Forman acquitted on the sale of HRT's shares in September of that year, close to the disclosure of the second fact. In this case, the talks brought no evidence that he knew of what was going on HRT, and the executive had considered alternative divestments for sale of the securities to raise sufficient resources to make an application for an investment fund.

Tadeu also voted for the acquittal of the former directors of HRT Maria Emilia Rocha Mello and Eduardo Teixeira. Both traded stocks in periods prior to the disclosure of the absence of oil in Namibia and also had relationships with other executives - Maria Emilia is the sister of the founder of oil, Márcio Mello. The dome of the CVM, however, considered that there was still no reliable information about whether or not oil in Namibia during the period when the two negotiated, since the company had not yet started the logging of the wells.

http://www.istoedinheiro.com.br/noticias/economia/20160913/cvm-multa-ex-administradores-hrt-por-insider/413019