Toronto – The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half his shares in the company just three weeks before a massive recall of its pet food products, Canadian insider- trading reports show.
Mark Wiens sold 14,000 shares for $89,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. The shares are now worth about $54,000.
“He feels just awful that this link has been made,” company spokesman Sam Bornstein said Wednesday.
But Bornstein said Wiens faced a restricted window in which he could sell his shares.
A blackout period related to the company’s fourth quarter results prevented Wiens from trading until Feb. 19, Bornstein said.
Wiens sought permission in writing from the CEO to trade then, a standard practice, he said.
Wiens currently owns about 17,000 shares.
Menu Foods began getting calls about sick cats about Feb. 26, but Bornstein said Wiens would not have known about them because of the size of the company. The calls didn’t raise alarms until a week later.
“He is a highly principled guy and for the amount of money that we are talking about, for him to imperil his career, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Bornstein said.
Wiens was quoted in Canada’s Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper as calling it a “horrible coincidence.” He did not immediately return phone calls Wednesday and Bornstein said Wiens didn’t want to talk about his shares any further.
On March 16, Menu Foods recalled 60 million cans of dog and cat food after the deaths of 16 pets that ate its products, mostly cats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said tests indicated the food was contaminated.
