AMF France v. Sergio Val Allue and others (insider trading, 2024)

Dismissed

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 5, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the French decision; an independent second reading of 60 of the AMF records agreed on every field for 54 and on the core fields for 59. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In January 2024 the Commission des sanctions rejected insider dealing charges against twelve individuals who traded in Direct Energie shares before Total announced a takeover in April 2018. It accepted that the takeover news was inside information from 6 April 2018 but found no proof that any of them held it.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Commission des sanctions of the AMF, first section, decided the matter on 31 January 2024. The twelve respondents are named in the decision.

On 18 April 2018, before the open, Total announced an agreement with the principal shareholders of Direct Energie to buy 74.33 percent of its capital at EUR 42 a share, with a mandatory public offer to follow. The notifications of grievances alleged that the plan was inside information, that the respondents had traded ahead of the announcement, and that Mr Biamonti had also attempted to use it.

The Commission held that the information was inside information at the latest on 6 April 2018 and until 18 April. It then examined each respondent and held that none was shown to have held it. It found that none of the transmission routes proposed in the notification was established, that the respondents' trades often matched their usual patterns or began before the information existed, and that the timing was not enough on its own.

The Commission found that none of the charges was made out. It put all twelve respondents out of the case (mise hors de cause), imposed no sanction, and ordered publication without anonymisation.

This record is a dismissal of all charges. It does not show whether the AMF college appealed, nor does it describe a criminal case.

This library tags the matter as insider trading. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decision.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2024-01-31 Commission des sanctions decision

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• AMF decision page
• Decision (PDF, French)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 5, 2026. submit a correction.