New Century director's stock sold; he says unaware

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A board member at battered subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. NEWC.PK last month sold $2.75 million worth of stock amid a 36 percent plunge in the company's share price, U.S. regulatory filings show.

The director, Michael Sachs, said he was not aware the shares were being sold until after the February 8 transaction was completed, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since then, lenders have stopped providing funding to New Century, pushing the company toward bankruptcy.

The February 8 sale of 140,000 New Century shares on Sachs' behalf happened on the day after the subprime lender said it found accounting problems and would restate financial results.

A footnote in the SEC filing said that under a 2004 agreement between Sachs and a lender affiliated with his broker, the lender was allowed to sell the shares without any prior notice.

"(Sachs) was not aware that the shares were being sold until after the sales were completed," the footnote said.

Sachs was not available for comment. Sachs is listed by New Century as chairman and chief executive of Westrec Financial, which says it is the largest owner-operator of marinas and related businesses.

The New York Stock Exchange on Monday suspended trading in New Century shares.

Sachs' shares were sold at prices between $19.42 and $19.80, according to the SEC filing. On February 8, the stock's high was $33.08 before closing at $19.24 on the bad news.

The stock resumed trading on Tuesday and fell 24.7 percent to $1.25 by midday.