Comcast chief fined $500,000 over stock purchases

The chief executive of Comcast has been fined $500,000 by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating anti-trust laws.

The FTC said that Brian Roberts will pay the fine to settle charges of failing to report a series of Comcast stock purchases between 2007 and 2009.

Roberts was in violation of terms set out during the 2002 merger between Comcast and AT&T, when he agreed to a five-year window in which he could purchase voting shares in the company without needing to notify the FTC.

However, Roberts continued to receive shares in the company until 2009, two years after the expiration of the agreement in October 2007. He was charged under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust act.

The FTC said that the fine was reduced because the violation was believed to be unintentional and did not result in any financial gain, and that Roberts had received incorrect advice prior to the transactions.

Roberts is not the first IT executive to be connected to a stock scandal. Two Apple executives were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007 over backdated stock options. Similar charges have been filed against executives at McAfee and RIM.