BP CEO sold block of stock shortly before oil spill

No one is saying that he saw it coming - how could he have? - but BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward managed to avoid a huge hit on his portfolio by selling one-third of his stake in the company a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion took BP's share price down with it.

Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports that Hayward sold a total of £1,4 million ($2 million) worth of BP stock one month before the Deepwater Horizon exploded. He then used the sale proceeds to pay off the mortgage on his family's mansion, which is estimated to be worth £1.2 million ($1.7 million).

Had he still owned the shares, he would now be looking at £443,000 ($629,000) in losses on the block of shares he sold. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly £40 million ($57.6 million) in value destroyed since the rig explosion.

No one is accusing Hayward of impropriety in selling the shares.

Hayward's annual compensation runs $4 million ($5.76 million) a year.

Written by Sandy Smith
For HULIQ.com

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