Ubisoft's Higher-Ups May go to Court for Insider Trading

Ubisoft, having just released Watch Dogs 2, must be feeling on top of the world right about now. Not only has it been critically praised, it's launch has been a great success, with ample pre-orders and no noticeable, game-breaking bugs to be found (yet), a first in Ubisoft's recent history. It seems like smooth sailing from here, right? They can use these accolades to catapult themselves to even more hype for their other upcoming releases, like Steep and For Honor, right?

Well, slow down there, champ: this is still Ubisoft we're talking about, and if they don't do something at least regrettable every month, then the world ends or something, and November, it seems they've saved their slot for "illegal insider trading."

Specifically, way back in October 15, 2013, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, as well as four other executives, were caught selling a generous portion of their stocks... which wouldn't have been so bad, if it wasn't announced a week later that The Cew and Watch_Dogs would be delayed by a year, causing Ubisoft stock to take a dip, losing about 25% of its value.

This, if you didn't know, is pretty damn illegal, and now the French-based company is facing reprimands from Autorité des marchés financiers, otherwise known as the AMF, France's stock market regulating authority. This, of course, is bad news.

Ubisoft has since made the following statement to Kotaku, who first reported the news:

"Ubisoft is aware that an action being brought by the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) involves five of our team members. Those individuals vigorously dispute their implication in this matter and the AMF’s interpretation of the facts. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, does not question the good faith of the people involved and has reassured them that they have his full support and trust.

These proceedings revolve around Ubisoft’s temporary stock market drop in the fall of 2013, after it was announced that Watch Dogs and The Crew would be delayed. The French AMF is alleging that before the announcement the team members in question may have sold securities while being in possession of insider information. The proceedings will continue in November at the Commission des Sanctions (sanctions board) in Paris.

Ubisoft itself has not been charged by the AMF.

Moreover, three of the Canadian team members implicated in the AMF’s action today filed a motion with the Superior Court of Québec demanding that the procedure be declared invalid and seeking damages against AMF France and AMF Québec."

That is... not much of a defense. It's more of a re-hash of what we already know, so already, it seems Ubisoft is going to distance itself from these allegations and keep its hands from getting too dirty. Which is fair. The case certainly does seem stacked against the accused parties, huh?

Well, we'll have to see what becomes of it.