Former Valeant CEO Michael Pearson has been busy selling Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) shares after leaving the company in April.
As part of his compensation package Pearson received millions of shares of stock options in addition to his salary. Pearson has since been busy diversifying away from Valeant shares, dumping eye-popping amounts in the open market.
Pearson sold approximately 411,000 shares in June and July that were previously held. He then exercised options to sell more than 4.4 million shares, a move that will net him more than $125 million before taxes.
Although Pearson remains a significant shareholder-- owning more than 3.5 million shares--critics say the timing of the sale is an indication Valeant may have even further to fall and Pearson is just trying to salvage a small portion of something that’s truly toxic.
Pearson disagrees. He said in a statement "I trimmed my ownership position for personal reasons. I plan on holding my remaining shares until the company recovers and returns to being traded on fundamentals."
Pearson is required to hold one million shares for two years after leaving the company as part of his original employment agreement.
Shares of Valeant are trading lower on Friday, down $0.24, or 1.04%, to $22.78. Shares are down more than 90% over the last year.
