[hjrnunes]

The controversy is not insider trading. It is executives exercising their share options during buybacks the price of which they themselves decide.

They decide when to buyback and choose to do it at market highs. This is not sound management and is not in the interest of the shareholders.

I learned about it in a recent edition of "The Intelligent Investor".

Most executives are shareholders only during the brief moment it takes exercising their options. They are not shareholders in the investor or even trader sense.

The claim that this amounts to distributing dividends is also not true. Options which is most of what the executives are holding don't earn dividends.