Brian Thompson UnitedHeathcare CEO faced DOJ probe into inside trading, anti-trust competition and fraud amid record profits and complaints the private health insurance company was unfairly denying claims.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson prior to being fatally gunned down in Manhattan, Wednesday morning had been facing a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into allegations of insider trading and fraud.
Thompson, 50, was shot dead in what NYPD officials believe was a targeted attack as he exited the Hilton hotel before an investor conference. The suspect killer continued to remain on the loose after fleeing the crime scene.
The health insurance executive’s slaying follows Thompson becoming the focus of a DOJ probe into whether the nation’s biggest private insurer had been unfairly restricting competitors and running a monopoly.
Insider trading prior to public release of antitrust probe
Thompson is reported to have exercised stock options and sold shares worth $15.1 million on Feb. 16, less than two weeks before news of the federal antitrust probe going public, according to a Crain’s New York Business report from April.
The stock price dropped sharply after the revelation that the DOJ was investigating whether the company had made acquisitions that consolidated its market position in violation of antitrust laws, a source familiar with the probe told the outlet.
Thompson’s stock options reportedly had several years until expiration, and the sale of shares was his first since assuming the helm of parent company UnitedHealth’s insurance division in 2021.
Thompson, 50, along with UnitedHealth Group chairman Stephen Helmsley, Chief People Officer Erin McSweeney and Chief Accounting Officer Tom Roos, sold a combined $101.5 million in shares, with Helmsley personally netting just shy of $85 million, according to the report.
At what cost profits?
Sources reportedly said that Thompson, who lives in Minnesota with his wife and children, was not a guest at the hotel but had arrived early to prepare for his presentation.
The gunman apparently knew which door Thompson was going to emerge from, and gunned him down from several feet away. The suspect then jumped on a bicycle, and is believed to have fled to Central Park.
The suspect is at large, and is described as a white male wearing a cream-colored jacket, black face mask, black and white sneakers, and a grey backpack.
United is the biggest health insurer by market share in America. The company has been the subject of frequent protests by activists for allegedly systematically denying care for patients.
‘There had been some threats,’ Paulette Thompson told NBC News in a phone interview following the 50 year old executive’s shooting murder earlier this morning.
‘Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?’ Thompson’s wife told the outlet, intimating that the largest private health insurance’s vast profits had come at the expense of patients and policy holders.
Prior to being gunned down, Thompson had been slated to speak at an investor meeting at the Hilton Hotel soon after the shooting. According to a release from United Healthcare on Tuesday, he would announce the company’s hugely profitable 2025 financial outlook, including expected revenues upwards of $450 billion.
