Shares in Canada’s Amaya Gaming plunged by more than one-fifth on Wednesday morning after securities regulators charged CEO David Baazov (pictured) with insider trading.

Early Wednesday, Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the stock watchdog in Amaya’s home province of Quebec, filed a total of 23 charges against Baazov, Amaya staffer Benjamin Ahdoot and Yoel Altman, a close friend of Baazov who formerly served as a financial advisor to the firm.

The charges stem from an AMF investigation into the surge in Amaya’s share price ahead of the company’s 2014 $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group, the parent company of PokerStara and Full Tilt, which overnight turned Amaya into the world’s top online gambling company.

Baazov’s charges include aiding with trades while in possession of privileged information, influencing or attempting to influence Amaya’s market price and communicating privileged information.