Montreal founder of online gambling firm cashes out

In this file photo, Amaya CEO David Baazov attends the company's annual general meeting in Montreal, Monday, June 22, 2015. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)

MONTREAL -- The founder and former chief executive of Amaya Inc. has sold about two-thirds of his remaining shares in the Montreal-based owner of PokerStars, for a total of $267.7 million.

David Baazov received an average of $22.31 per share for the 12 million Amaya shares that he sold on Wednesday and Thursday.

Prior to this week's sales, Baazov owned about 17.6 million Amaya shares -- or 12 per cent of its common stock.

That drops to 3.8 per cent of Amaya's shares following this week's transactions, which were disclosed late Thursday.

It's Baazov's second large divestiture this month. He announced March 7 that had sold seven million Amaya shares at an average price of $19 per share, totalling $133 million.

Baazov had proposed early last year to buy Amaya and take it private, but walked away from the bid in December after running into legal problems.

He has pleaded not guilty to securities-related charges that were announced following an investigation into allegations of illicit trading by several close associates over a five-year period.