Also seems like a pretty big coincidence that the others sold off their shares immediately after hearing about the breach, but it was unrelated.
That has not yet been concluded. This could be the first move in a series of charges.
That or Ying was uniquely stupid. He texted his direct report “on the phone with [global CIO]. Sounds bad. We may be the one breached. . . . Starting to put 2 and 2 together" [1] before exercising "all of his vested options to buy Equifax shares, and then immediately [selling] those Equifax shares for total proceeds of more than $950,000" (§ 49) an hour after searching for "(1) 'Experian breach'; (2) 'Experian stock price 9/15/2015'; and (3) 'Experian breach 2015'" on the Internet (§ 42).
[1] https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-4... § 31
Why would Equifax even have a say in that? It's not like he's a sacrificial lamb. There's evidence against him, it will be used. If evidence is discovered against other individuals, it will be used, regardless of the opinion of Equifax.
"Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame" [1]. Ying's blame is merited. What happened here is multiple people may have violated securities law and one has been charged. We don't know yet if it's one period or one so far.
I think the consensus here is Equifax hired this guy to take the blame pretty much. That's why we call him the fall guy.
Look at Wells Fargo. Or even HSBC. Apparently, even Toyota tried to cover up its sticky accelerator? Don't forget about VW.
I think when something like this happens the CEO and the board must go to prison even if there is no direct evidence. You must take responsibility for the actions of your reports. I can't see things improving any other way.
What are you on about? Your theory is that Equifax execs presciently knew there would be a breach, and that they’d want to engage in insider trading, so they hired this guy and waited until the breach then told him to break the law too so he could ‘take he fall’?
Taking the fall means "to bear the blame or punishment for another person's failure or misdeed" [1]. Ying is being charged with his own crimes alone.
Furthermore, we have no evidence about whether (a) the other executives actually committed a violation, (b) Ying is the only one who left a prosecutable paper trail or (c) Ying will take a plea deal and co-operate against the others.
[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_the_fall