So remember last week when Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot told the press that there was no concern over a hostile takeover by multimedia dynamo, Vivindi? Well as it turns out, that was all a giant line off bull. The company has been slowly losing its voting shares, and now, five executive members of the Ubisoft Montreal have been accused of insider trading.

The Autorite des marches financiers, (pretty much French stock exchange police) are arraigning Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal, and 4 other executives for the insider trading crimes, claiming that they sold stock with prior knowledge of the delay of Watch_Dogs 2 on PC. In short, the allegations state they were aware that the stock would devalue once the announcement was made, and as such they sold it in advance to make a few more bucks off it all.

Mallat, of course denied all of these accusations when interviewed by a Canadian newspaper La Presse (yeah, it’s in french but we promise he’s saying ‘I didn’t do it’).  Furthermore, Ubisoft and and CEO Guillemot are standing behind his statements. The company provided Kotaku with this official stance:

“Ubisoft is aware that an action being brought by the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) involves five of our team members. Those individuals vigorously dispute their implication in this matter and the AMF’s interpretation of the facts. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, does not question the good faith of the people involved and has reassured them that they have his full support and trust.

These proceedings revolve around Ubisoft’s temporary stock market drop in the fall of 2013, after it was announced that Watch Dogs and The Crew would be delayed. The French AMF is alleging that before the announcement the team members in question may have sold securities while being in possession of insider information. The proceedings will continue in November at the Commission des Sanctions (sanctions board) in Paris.

Ubisoft itself has not been charged by the AMF.

Moreover, three of the Canadian team members implicated in the AMF’s action today filed a motion with the Superior Court of Québec demanding that the procedure be declared invalid and seeking damages against AMF France and AMF Québec.”

What do you think gamers? Did the AMF catch the Ubisoft Montreal executives with their hand in the cookie jar? Are all these indictments of insider trading misplaced? Let us know how you feel about it all in the comments!