The SEC has charged former Qualys Chief Commercial Officer Amer Deeba with insider trading. Under terms of a settlement, Deeba is expected to pay a $581,170 penalty and barred from serving as an officer or director of any SEC-reporting company for two years.
Deebra allegedly tipped off his brothers in advance Qualys announcing weaker-than-expected financial results in April 2017, thus helping those brothers avoid losses of over half a million dollars.
The settlement, in which Deebra neither admits nor denies the allegations, is subject to court approval. After 17 years at Qualys, Deeba resigned his position as a senior leader and officer earlier this month.
Qualys is a cloud security solution provider that works closely with channel partners. For instance:
- Qualys partners with every major global MSSP, CEO Philippe Courtot has previously indicated.
- For the three months ended March 31, channel partners generated roughly 40 percent of Qualys sales, according to an SEC filing.
- During a recent earnings call, the company pointed to EY and PwC as key partners.
Still, the channel model could get tricky. The reason: Qualys earlier this year signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Second Front Systems — a channel partner and IT consulting firm in the federal government sector. Although the move could help Qualys to better serve government agencies, it also risks creating channel conflicts that may alienate some partners, MSSP Alert believes.
