49ers CEO Jed York Accused Of Insider Trading, Covering Up Cheating Scandal

Published|Updated

The CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, Jed York, is facing a pair of lawsuits pertaining to a college cheating scandal and alleged insider trading,

York became the CEO of the Niners in 2008 and since 2013 he has been on the board of Chegg, Inc.

Chegg is an online educational service and it became very popular during the early stages of the pandemic when every single college course was conducted virtually. This caused Chegg's stock prices to soar. At one point they reached a high of over $113 per share in February 2021, per Yahoo Finance.

However, the popularity led to something that students referred to as "chegging."

All that means is they used Chegg's services to look up answers to test questions. I'm not sure why that deserved a special name instead of just being called "cheating," but this is the age of the internet, so everything has to have a cute name.

York Accused Of Dumping Shares Before The Scandal Broke

The lawsuits allege that York and others on Chegg's board covered up the cheating scandal. It even accuses them of making misleading statements to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Additionally, it's alleged that York sold off shares of the company while its value was at its peak and before news of the chegging scandal had broken. One suit claims he sold 20,000 shares of the company for $1.4 million.

Once the scandal had hit the news and students returned to physical classrooms, Chegg's stock price dropped like a bad habit. It was soon below $30 per share and currently sits at around $11.

“York engaged in insider sales before the fraud was exposed,” one suit claims. “As a trusted member of the board, he conducted little, if any, oversight of Chegg’s engagement in … the cheating misconduct.

“His insider sales demonstrate his motive in facilitating and participating in the scheme."

We'll see how this goes, but it's definitely not something someone like York needs right as the NFL season is getting underway.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

Tags
Written by
Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.