New Lawsuit Against Chipotle Execs

With sales and stocks still reeling, a small group of Chipotle shareholders have now filed an additional lawsuit against the company’s executives, claiming that they “abused their control of the Company, and dealt themselves excessive compensation worth hundreds of millions of dollars through a corrupt stock incentive plan.”

The suit explicitly names Co-CEOs Steve Ells and Montgomery Moran, and CFO Jack Hartung, among others. It claims that these executives, using insider knowledge about the food safety protocols that would cause Chipotle’s well-reported downfall in 2015, dumped their stocks at an artificially inflated price and raked in millions before the food poisoning scandals began. Supposedly Ells made $78 million by selling 119,057 shares, Moran raked in $107 million, and Hurtung $28 million.

Chipotle has not admitted any wrong doing, and both this suit and one from January are still pending.

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