Since many on this board are finding dire implications regarding IOC management not buying shares personally, I asked IOC Legal Counsel Sheree Ford if there were, as I suspected, legal restrictions on IOC management personally purchasing shares. She passed my inquiry on to Michael Lynn, IOC Investor Relations, and here is his response:
"Our insider trading policy is on our website under "insider trading policy" at:
http://www.interoil.com/iocfiles/documents/corporateinformation/corporategovernance/
As set out on page 7 under "Additional Black-Out Periods " the Company has imposed a blackout applying to all Covered Persons while any appraisal or exploration drilling program is being conducted by the Company. During such a blackout period except in limited circumstances described in the policy a Covered Person is prohibited from undertaking any sale, purchase or other transactions of any kind in Company securities.
At page 7, it states: 'In addition, the Company has imposed a blackout applying to all Covered Persons while any appraisal or exploration drilling program is being conducted by the Company. During such a blackout period a Covered Person is prohibited from undertaking any sale, purchase or other transactions of any kind in Company securities (other than those in which the Company is the buyer or seller for its own account or transactions made pursuant to an approved, Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan as described above). The Compensation Committee may grant an exception to this prohibition on a case-by-case basis in the circumstances described under “Hardship and Special Circumstances Cases” above.'
As the Company is currently undertaking drilling activity the black out applies."
This policy was formally put into place on October 15, 2014. However, i'm also certain that a similar policy was in place previous to that date. No conspiracy, no ulterior motives. Simply a corporate stock purchase restriction relating to non-public material insider information. Time to move on.