The US justice department has opened a criminal investigation into whether top officials at Equifax violated insider trading laws when they sold stock before the company disclosed that it had been hacked, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Prosecutors are looking at the stock sales by Equifax chief financial officer John Gamble; president of US Information Solutions Joseph Loughran; and president of Workforce Solutions Rodolfo Ploder, said two people, who asked not to be named because the probe is confidential.

The company and the executives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Equifax disclosed earlier this month that it discovered a security breach on July 29th. The three executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in early August. The company has said the managers didn’t know of the breach at the time they sold the shares. – (Bloomberg)