Guilty plea in Eroad insider trading case, FMA 'satisfied with outcome'

Financial Markets Authority chief executive Rob Everett. Picture / Supplied

A person charged over insider trading of Eroad shares has pleaded guilty.

In the Auckland District Court today, the person admitted one charge of being an information insider advising or encouraging another person to trade.

Eroad is an NZX-listed transport technology company which uses state-of-the-art hardware and the internet to capture information for clients such as road-user charges as well as tracking vehicles.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA), which brought the case, said it had agreed to withdraw two obstruction charges against the person. The person will be sentenced on June 13.

"We are satisfied with this outcome. While obstructing the FMA is treated seriously, in this instance we have achieved our regulatory objectives with the defendant's guilty plea to insider trading," said FMA general counsel Nick Kynoch.

Another person has been charged in connection with alleged insider trading and is yet to appear before the court.

Both people have name suppression.

"The FMA alleges that an Eroad employee sent text messages to a former Eroad employee that contained confidential material information relating to Eroad's performance in the period to 30 September 2015," the FMA said.

"That individual then traded 15,000 Eroad shares."

The FMA said it was unable to provide any further details at this time.