I have just been looking at all the posts regarding Dr. Sweeney and I did want to add a few facts about the scenario that I think should ease some peoples minds. The scenario does not start in April when the selling took place it started in mid Dec 2015 when Dr. Sweeney exercised rights to convert Restricted Share Units (RSU's) into common stock. I don't pretend to know why he did this but when he did in mid Dec 2015 it meant that the value of the 100,000 rights he exercised would be treated as 2015 income. In mid December 2015 the stock was worth about $1.60 so it means that he likely added about $160,000 of TAXABLE INCOME to his 2015 income with no real cash in hand to pay taxes come tax time. To me it is no big suprise that in April someone might want to sell some shares to cover some of the taxes due once they have converted RSU's.

I noticed on the latest INK (insider) report that the remaining 50,000 shares, which he KEPT, are now listed as not directly owned but that he has control or direction of them. If I was going to speculate I would say he has converted them at a low price so future gains are treated as capital gains and not income and perhaps they have now been placed in a tax sheltered or even a spousal vehicle. But as I said this is just a guess.

The key point to remember about RSU's is that they are treated as earned income not capital gains when they are exercised and as such a high wage earner is going to face a fairly high tax bill upon the exercise in most situations and has to come up with cash to cover the taxes if they don't want to sell some of the shares.