Page 9 of His Undercover Wolf

“So despite having only a small percentage held by the public, they still have the power to make share prices catapult into the stratosphere by buying or selling in certain ways.”

“That’s correct.”

“How, I don’t fully understand?”

“Didn’t Evan include a breakdown in your file?”

Otsana shook her head.

“The company has six million, two hundred thousand shares in total that are registered on the exchange.”

“That makes three and a half percent around two hundred thousand?”

“Two hundred and seventeen thousand to be precise,” I informed.

“What would the value of a share be when a product is released if there were no insider trading?”

“It is difficult to know how they would price because the insider trading has taken place for every release except the first. We had no staff at that time. Cillian and I incorporated the business and listed shares on the exchange to make up the shortfall after using the money my grandfather had left me to fund the development of our first product, Indigo.”

“The file information showed it wasn’t until Matilda that the insider trading was flagged.” Otsana scribbled some notes on the sheet of paper and some in her notebook.

“That is correct. About five days before the release date was announced we saw the stocks behaving unusually and contacted the securities commission.”

“You made millions with Indigo, why didn’t you do a share buyback?” Otsana’s question was valid and fair.

“We considered doing so, but there’s a huge amount of red tape and paperwork involved, as you would be aware. Cillian and I are making enough money to support a small country, so we decided to leave things as they are and allow others to share in our good fortune.”

“I understand.” Otsana glanced at the sheet of paper. “After Matilda there was Byron, Krista, and now Panda. Is that correct?”

“Yes. Cillian and I discussed Panda this morning and we’ve decided to push back the announcement of a release date by two weeks and release Panda onto the market two weeks later than planned. We’re hoping to get this mess sorted once and for all.”

“The shares have exchanged hands now and we won’t be able to stop any sell offs, but hopefully you can track down who is doing this, and it will be the last time it happens,” Cillian continued.

“I’ve been at this job for a long time and there is always something new and unexpected we need to understand, but I give you both my word, we will do our best to find the perpetrator. Talk me through how the share prices have changed over time. Evan has documented it, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

I exchanged a glance with Cillian, this was more his part of our company ship and after a subtle nod, he explained, “The shares before we released Indigo held steady at around eleven dollars each. After a successful release, people were keen to acquire stock in a new, innovative, and exciting company they believed would do great things in the future. Stock exchanged hands at record pace and the price of shares jumped to thirty-seven dollars each.”

Otsana whistled. Why did a woman emitting a long, low whistle cause my dick to twitch?

“Not a bad increase. Those selling did well.”

“Indeed,” Cillian continued. “The price hovered between thirty-five and forty dollars over the next years and there was a lot of anticipation about what we had in the pipeline. While we developed Matilda, Cillian started building the electronics side of the company. We invested in successful products such as inverters, sound and video, security and surveillance equipment…which we made good use of in studying company computers for hints to the insider with no results, IT and communications, cables and connectors.” I paused to take a breath and finish the last of my coffee.

“You had plenty happening to keep share prices steady and investors happy while they waited for the release of your next breakthrough,” Otsana commented.

“They were getting decent annual returns because the company was exploding with growth,” Cillian informed

“What happened with Matilda?” Otsana asked curiously

Six days before the release date was due to be announced the single share price shot up to one-hundred-and-eight dollars.”

“Wow! I have never known a jump to be so high in all our previous investigations on insider trading,” Otsana admitted.

“You can understand why we were concerned. We took it straight to authorities. Evan found out through contacts that word on the streets was that we were going to be releasing a never-before-seen product that would set records in sales. Some of the shareholders jumped at the opportunity to sell, thinking the price had peaked. They weren’t prepared to gamble on them flatlining if the product failed to live up to expectations.”

“Did it…?” Otsana asked.

“Did it what?” I asked back.

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