by Stacy Jones on Jan 29, 2014
Funcom may have started out Wednesday in the worst way possible. VG247 caught a report this morning from E24 stating that Funcoms Norwegian office had been raided by Economic Crime authorities for suspicion of infringed provisions of the Securities Trading Act. The report goes on to state that employees were asked to leave the building and several boxes of documents were seized.
The charges reportedly involve a previous investigation of information released to the market during the 2012 launch of The Secret World. Economic Crimes Hans Christian Koss confirmed to E24 that the developer has been charged with violating the Securities Act as well as not taking insider lists properly. Funcom stock went into a trading halt on the Oslo Stock Exchange this morning. A statement from Økokrim read:
Økokrim (the Norwegian National authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime) has charged Funcom N.V. based on suspicion of infringement of the provisions of the Securities Trading Act with regards to the financial information given to the market regarding The Secret World from August 2011 until the launch of the game in July 2012 and the two months following the launch. In the view of Økokrim, there also exists a probability that the company has not maintained the required log of information within the company during that time.
The statement went on to explain that Funcom "is fully cooperating with Økokrim."
Weve reached out to Funcom for comment, so stay tuned and well update you with any new information.