Jed York, CEO of San Francisco 49ers and co-owner of Leeds, is being charged with insider trading “after being a board member he sold $1.4 million worth of stock on an education website while hiding a looming fraud scandal.”

Jed York, the CEO of the San Francisco 49ers and a member of the Leeds United ownership group, is facing two insider trading lawsuits over his involvement with a California-based education website accused of facilitating student deception.

In two shareholder lawsuits obtained by the San Francisco ChronicleYork and other Chegg Inc executives. are accused of concealing the website’s role in helping students cheat during online exams.

According to the lawsuits, business revenues reportedly rose during the pandemic because students were able to quickly get answers from Chegg during online exams. When the pandemic ended and students returned to the classroom, Chegg’s profits quickly plummeted.

York and the Chegg board are charged with “gross mismanagement” and “unjust enrichment” in the civil lawsuits. There are further allegations that the 49ers executive, Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig, and other top executives unloaded company shares at the top end of the market without telling investors about the looming cheating scandal.

York, 43, reportedly earned $1.4 million by buying 20,000 shares of Chegg Inc. “at artificially inflated prices,” the lawsuit said. He also earned $2 million over 10 years of part-time work on Chegg’s board while making $4.9 million in profits from company stock, according to company records obtained by the Chronicle.

Rosenweig had claimed in May that Chegg’s share price had halved since the first quarter, not because of website cheating, but because artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT had become the primary resource for students seeking quick answers online.

The lawsuit calls for a new board of directors of the company, a federal effort to force the company to comply with safety laws, as well as the payment of damages and restitution by Chegg’s directors.

Chegg.org has other ties to the 49ers outside of York. The company’s “Impact Fund” donated $500 to first-generation students during the 2019 season for every 49ers down first, eventually giving away $100,000 in scholarships.

“I love how @Chegg is changing the game in education!” York tweeted in 2019.

Forty-Niners spokesman Brian Brokaw responded to the lawsuits in a statement that failed to mention the pending lawsuits: “The 49ers are proud of the work we’ve done with Chegg to provide scholarships to first-generation students.”

A spokesperson for Chegg gave a longer response to the Chronicle.

“The recent securities-related lawsuits against Chegg, and in certain cases (his) board of directors, are baseless and Chegg is vigorously defending itself,” a Chegg spokesperson wrote in an email.

Chegg takes academic integrity very seriously and has invested significant resources to protect it. For many years, Chegg has been helping millions of students learn and thrive, including during the pandemic, by creating a transformative digital learning platform to improve outcomes.”

Founded in 2005, Chegg started out as a company that lent textbooks at discounted prices before moving to California in 2012 and refocusing on its website, which offered $19.95 online learning accounts.

It was those accounts that have come under scrutiny since the pandemic, when college students were accused of using their access to cheat on exams, according to the lawsuits. Forbes Magazine would later report that college students began using the term “chegging” for using the website to cheat.

UCLA officials have also pointed to “rampant” cheating using Chegg accounts.

Rosensweig previously told investors that, according to the lawsuit, Chegg helped college students who needed more academic help than universities can provide. The company also claimed that a spike in international student enrollments supported profits.

York, a 42-year-old multimillionaire, is the cousin of former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. He later got involved in football when 49ers Enterprises got into a fight with Leeds United.