The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has launched an investigation into the possible involvement of a Tokyo Stock Exchange employee in an insider trading case, it was learned Wednesday.
The male employee is suspected of leaking undisclosed information, including on a company's takeover bid, to a relative this year, according to informed sources. The employee allegedly obtained the information through his work, the sources said.
The relative is suspected of engaging in fraudulent stock trading based on the information on multiple occasions, earning at least a few hundred thousand yen in profit.
The employee is being subjected to compulsory investigation for possible violations of the financial instruments and exchange law. The law bans people with knowledge of important undisclosed information that would affect stock prices from feeding such details to other people or encouraging others to engage in stock trading with the knowledge.
The TSE is Japan's largest stock exchange, with about 4,000 companies listed as of October.
It is extremely rare for an employee of the TSE, which conducts listing examinations and looks over timely disclosure announcements by listed companies, to be under compulsory investigation.
The commission conducted compulsory searches of several locations, including the TSE employee's home, in September.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Japan Exchange Group, which operates the TSE, said that it will "continue to make every effort in cooperating with this investigation."
"We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and concern this will cause among our listed companies and other related parties," it said.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.