The Justice Department announced it will be investigating the cause and collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Tuesday.
One aspect that will likely be investigated is the company shares that were sold by several of the bank’s executives in the weeks leading up to the bank’s failure, sources familiar with the case told The New York Times.
With those sales of shares, it “generated millions of dollars in proceeds, though some of the bank’s executives sold stock pursuant to insider selling plans that set the timing of such sales in advance,” per the Times.
The bank’s failure is “the second largest bank failure in U.S. history,” according to NBC News. The shares fell 60% last week, and no trading has taken place since Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will also be investigating Silicon Valley Bank. The SEC will often look into large losses in financial institutions.
It will be investigating what information and transactions took place within the business in the 90 days leading up to the collapse, per the WSJ.
The bank was popular with tech companies, especially start-ups, and multiple businesses and individuals made a run on deposits last week after hearing it might be in trouble. Financial regulators ultimately closed it on Friday, The Washington Post reported.