𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕟 𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕤𝕦𝕖𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕌𝕊 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘

𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕪𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕣 ℙ𝕒𝕝𝕠 𝔸𝕝𝕥𝕠 ℕ𝕖𝕥𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕜𝕤 𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕝 𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕟 𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤, 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘

J

ohn Key, the former prime minister of New Zealand,  is being sued by the shareholders of Palo Alto Networks (PAN) for alleged insider trading, along with other members of the well-known cybersecurity vendor's management team and board of directors. Key is a PAN director.

Others facing insider trading allegations include PAN founder Nir Zak, the company's chief executive Nikesh Arora, and board director and Zoom chief operating officer Aparna Bawa.

.

.

Collectively, the company officials are alleged to have breached their "fiduciary duties as directors and/or officers of Palo Alto" and are accused of "unjust enrichment, abuse of control, gross mismanagement, [and] waste of corporate assets" and for having breached the US Exchange Act.

Key made an election promise in 2008 not to raise GST. Then flip-flopped

The alleged wrongdoing is said to have taken place between August 18, 2023 and February 20 this year. Lawyers for the shareholders are asking for a jury trial to be held, and are seeking restitution from the defendants in the case, along with costs and expert fees.

PAN shareholders allege the company officials made false and misleading statements about PAN's products, such as the Cortex XSIAM artificial intelligence security automation platform being adopted by customers. The court filing refers to a earnings call on February 20 this year, during which Arora revealed that several US federal government deals didn't close and the company lowered its guidance for the third quarter of the 2024 financial year.

Key has been a director of PAN since 2019, and also chairs the company's audit committee. In 2023, Key received US$380,355 in total compensation from PAN, all of it in shares in the company.

Interest.co.nz is seeking comment from Key, who stepped down from the position as chair of the ANZ NZ bank in March this year.

.

.

Key sold 2297 PAN shares on December 18, 2023 US time, for US$709,175 according to the court application. Chief executive Arora sold shares for over US$159 million, and founder Zuk earnt almost US$33.2 million for selling 108,000 shares in PAN.

Other company officials also sold large amounts of PAN shares. The total amount of alleged insider trading is said to exceed US$265 million.

For the second quarter of its 2024 financial year, PAN reported a revenue increase of 19% to US$1.975 billion. The company makes information security hardware and software such as firewalls, and supplies threat intelligence for its customers. In April this year, PAN disclosed a serious vulnerability in its firewall operating system software, rated as 10 out of 10 in severity, which would allow remote code execution.

.