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October 28. 2012 6:45PM

Citigroup fires 2 after Facebook disclosures elicit $2 million fine

SAN FRANCISCO — Unauthorized disclosures to media of non-public information related to Facebook Inc.’s initial public offering have cost two Citigroup analysts their jobs.

One of them was the prominent Internet analyst Mark Mahaney, according to The Wall Street Journal. A Citigroup spokesperson confirmed that Mahaney is no longer with the company.

Citigroup has been fined $2 million by the Massachusetts Securities Division for having “failed to prevent or detect the written disclosure of material, nonpublic research information in a restricted period before the Facebook IPO,” according to a consent order posted on the agency’s website.

In a statement, Citigroup said: “We are pleased to have this matter resolved. We take our internal policies and procedures very seriously and have taken the appropriate actions.”

Citigroup was one of the underwriters of the Facebook IPO. But on May 2, two weeks before the company went public, a junior analyst emailed an employee at the tech-media site TechCrunch to share apparently nonpublic information, according to the consent order.

“I am ramping up coverage on FB and thought you guys might like to see how the street is thinking about it (and our estimates),” the email read. The analyst added, “This, of course, is confidential.”

Asked by the TechCrunch employee if the document could be published citing “an anonymous source,” the analyst responded: “My boss would eat me alive.”

Facebook’s IPO became controversial after it was sued by investors who alleged that the social-media site did not disclose enough information on the state of the company.

Facebook’s shares have shed about 40 percent since the company’s May 18 IPO. The stock fell 2.7 percent to close at $21.94 on Friday, although it ended the week up 15.5 percent after the social network reported gains in its mobile-ad business.

Last Wednesday, Mahaney raised his rating on the stock to buy from neutral, saying in a note: “What investors have for the first time since the Facebook IPO is fundamentals acceleration with a reasonable valuation.”

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