Three former Netflix employees charged with insider trading

US regulators on Wednesday filed insider trading charges against five people, including three former Netflix employees, accusing them of illegally using confidential data on subscriber growth at the streaming television giant.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the group generated $3 million in total profits by trading on the insider information from three former Netflix software engineers.

“We allege that a Netflix employee and his close associates

engaged in a long-running, multimillion dollar scheme to profit from valuable, misappropriated company information,” said Erin Schneider, director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office.

Joseph Sansone of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit said the group tried to evade detection by using encrypted messaging applications and paying cash kickbacks.