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Berlin (dpa) - The financial supervisory authority Bafin is investigating in two cases whether employees have carried out unauthorized speculative share transactions.

The deals were noticed during an investigation into employee deals with shares in the US companies Gamestop and AMC Entertainment.

This emerges from a response by the federal government to a request from the left-wing financial expert in the Bundestag, Fabio de Masi.

The "Handelsblatt" had previously reported on this.

The value of the shares had increased significantly in some cases

The capricious prices of the US video game retailer Gamstop kept the stock exchanges in suspense for weeks, as did the speculation about the papers of the AMC cinema chain.

The value of the shares had increased significantly in some cases.

At Gamestop, for example, small investors with concerted purchases forced hedge funds to cancel their bets on a fall in the price of the securities.

This brought the share significant price gains in some cases.

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The federal government pointed out that Gamestop and AMC are US companies and that shares in these companies are not subject to the Bafin’s trade ban for private financial transactions.

These companies are also not subject to the supervision of the Bafin.

Checks are currently underway in two cases

In a total of two cases (two people), the Bafin checks whether the reported private financial transactions are to be classified as speculative, according to the answer from the Ministry of Finance, which is available to the German Press Agency.

From the point of view of the Bafin and the Ministry, this would be unacceptable.

Speculative private transactions have no longer been allowed for Bafin employees since October 16, 2020.

In the period between September 1, 2020 and February 10, 2021, according to the government response, four employees bought or sold Gamestop shares 23 times.

Four employees also traded AMC shares six times (as of March 22, 2021).

The shops were reported by employees.

The examination has not yet been fully completed, "according to the current status, there are no signs of insider trading," it said.

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During the period under review, the first wave of the spectacular exchange of blows between well-organized small investors and hedge funds occurred on the stock exchanges, which initially drove the prices of these stocks up sharply.

© dpa-infocom