Facebook Fires Manager Over Insider Trading

Facebook gave one of its managers the boot after he violated company policy on insider trading, reports TechCrunch. Former corporate development manager Michael Brown bought company stock in the burgeoning secondary trading market, sources tell the site. Because Facebook is a private company, he apparently didn't violate any federal laws, just the company's internal rules.

The initial report suggested Brown bought stock just ahead of Goldman Sachs' $50 billion valuation of the company, but subsequent sources cast doubt on that. If nothing else, the scandal is likely to bring renewed SEC scrutiny to the tech world's booming secondary markets. "The size of the trades was relatively small, we’ve heard," write Sarah Lacy and Michael Arrington. "But the consequences to Silicon Valley’s newfound love of free-wheeling unregulated secondary market trades may be much larger." (More Facebook stories.)