Was Ken Bates Insider Trading?Now when Ken Bates sold his last 50,000 shares of stock, was Ken Bates insider trading seeing as he sold it one day before Mitsui bought the initial stock from Thyssen Krupp? ONE DAY BEFORE MITSUI BOUGHT FOR 1.41.....He made an exclusive deal with MItsui on New Elk, a deal he couldn't have made if Thyssen had European rights to CMK coal, unless he knew Thyssen was selling its shares.