The Secret World dev Funcom charged with suspected trading violations
Okokrim, Norway's central authority for dealing with economic and environmental crime, charged MMO studio Funcom this morning with suspected trading infringements. The alleged violations are based around information provided by Funcom for the year leading up to the launch of The Secret World, the company's headline game.
The news followed the Oslo stock market imposing a "matching halt" at 9.30AM Norway time, essentially stopping trading on company stock. According to a press release issued by Funcom via the Oslo exchange's NewsWeb, normal trading resumed three hours later.
We've reached out to Funcom and Okokrim for more details, but according to a press release from Funcom issued to the Oslo exchange, Okokrim believes there's a "probability" the company has not kept up the required records during the relevant time, noted as between August 2011 and The Secret World's launch in July 2012, and the two months following launch.
"The company is fully cooperating with Okokrim," reads the press release in closing.
There are various reports of Okokrim performing a "raid" on Funcom this morning, with photos of the unit's black vans outside the Dreamfall studio's Oslo headquarters, and Okokrim staff members entering the offices with cardboard boxes.
Funcom came under scrutiny in 2012, when former CEO Trond Arne Aas was investigated for suspected trading based on insider knowledge. Aas stepped down as Funcom CEO the day before The Secret World launched, then sold much of his stock in the company in the months after; Funcom's stock had dropped eight-fold from the game's launch to the time of investigation.
