Watch Justice Department and SEC to probe stock sales ahead of Silicon Valley Bank collapse, report says – Latest News

The US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The tech and start-up-focused lender based in Santa Clara, California, was taken over by regulators on Friday during a run on its deposits, making it the second-largest bank failure in US history.

It is not unusual for there to be such investigations when large financial institutions or public companies collapse or suffer unexpected losses, but the separate probes will also look at stock sales that company bosses made days before the bank failed.

Shares in SVB Financial Group, which formerly owned the bank, fell 60 per cent last week and have been stopped from trading since Friday.

The Journal reports that the DOJ probe involves fraud prosecutors based out of Washington and San Francisco.

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