Michael Cowpland, CEO of troubled Canadian software house Corel Corp, is facing an investigation from authorities concerning his sale of roughly $14m in the company’s stock before the share price took a substantial dive. The Ontario Securities Commission is taking a close look at Cowpland’s trading history, which includes last year’s sale of C$20.5m worth of Corel shares when they were trading at about C$8.40 in Toronto. Within a month, the shares had lost about 40% of their value after the company issued a third-quarter profit warning. A subsequent fourth-quarter warning followed, taking the shares further into the abyss. A Corel spokesperson dismissed the probe as merely a routine investigation after a sizable insider sale. Cowpland had previously stated that he sold the shares for personal reasons, such as to pay debts. Since last August, when Cowpland unloaded his shares, Corel shares on Nasdaq have plunged from a 52-week high of $6.625 to a low of $1.375 – an overall drop of roughly 80%. They closed at $1.4375 on Tuesday, down $0.0625. Corel has also been hit with four separate class action suits this year, alleging that Cowpland, former chief financial officer Chuck Norris, and the company artificially inflated the share price – a central claim in most shareholder suits.
