The healthcare CEO shot and killed in New York on Wednesday was one of several senior executives at UnitedHealthcare who sold stock after an antitrust investigation had been launched by the Department of Justice but not yet made public, according to a Crain’s New York Business report from April.
Thompson, 50, was killed in what police are calling a “targeted shooting”.
In February, Thompson sold shares of the company’s stock options worth $15.1 million just two weeks before the DOJ announced its probe into the company.
The DOJ, joined by the attorneys general from Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, sued to block UnitedHealth Group Incorporated from spending $3.3 billion to acquire its rival health and hospice provider, Amedisys Inc.
"We are challenging this merger because home health and hospice patients and their families experiencing some of the most difficult moments of their lives deserve affordable, high quality care options," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said last month. "The Justice Department will not hesitate to check unlawful consolidation and monopolization in the healthcare market that threatens to harm vulnerable patients, their families, and health care workers."
UnitedHealthcare's stock prices dropped significantly after the DOJ announced its probe.
According to Crain's, Thompson's stock options were not set to expire for several years, and the February sale was the first time he sold options since he took over the company in 2021.
UnitedHealth Group's chairman, Stephen Helmsley, its Chief People Officer Erin McSweeney, and its Chief Accounting Office Tom Roos are also under investigation, collectively selling $101.5 million in stock shares prior to the investigation.
It's been a tough 2024 for UnitedHealth; on top of the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO and the federal antitrust probe, the parent group, UnitedHealth Group was also hit with a massive data breach earlier this year. As many as one-third of Americans' had their private data — including Social Security numbers — potentially exposed in the breach.
The company fell victim to a ransomware attack and ultimately paid $22 million to the hackers holding its systems hostage, UHCG CEO Andrew Witty told a Congressional panel in the spring.
The group estimated that the hack cost it approximately $705 million, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, police are still searching for Thompson's killer, who escaped the scene of the shooting on foot.
