Online retailer Amazon has defended its chief executive Mr Jeff Bezos against allegations of misconduct after he unloaded £8 million in company stocks earlier this year.
Amazon says it is confident regulators will rule that Mr Bezos has behaved properly.
The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refused to comment on whether Mr Bezos will be investigated for selling the shares days before the publication of a report questioning Amazon's performance.
In two separate trades in early February Mr Bezos sold 800,000 shares of Amazon stock.
The trades came just days ahead of the public release of a Lehman Brothers report titled "Revisiting Amazon's Liquidity."
Amazon claims that while the report did scrutinise Amazon's cash flow, it was based on old, already-public information about the company.
Under Amazon's internal rules governing stock trading, executives who have access to non-public information must make their trades soon after the company issues its quarterly reports.
Amazon has said it will co-operate with any SEC investigation.
PA