Geoff Barnes — the chairman of blockchain investor First Growth Funds (ASX:FGF) — last week bought 28 million shares via 2c options that were expiring this week — and sold 16.7 million shares on market.

Mr Barnes sold for an average of 5.7c and made $385,852 after the buying costs were taken out.

The transaction comes after Mr Barnes made $94,000 the week before exercising options and selling on-market.

David and Chris Reed, the father-son duo at lithium producer Neometals (ASX:NMT), have sold 10.1 million shares and 1.9 million shares respectively to institutional clients — but still collectively own 11 per cent.

David, a director and long-time resources guy, sold to prepare for retirement — he got $3.5 million. Chris, the managing director, is putting his $665,000 towards a tax bill arising out of the issue of performance rights.

“The directors have advised the company that they do not intend to sell any more shares in the near future,” Neometals assured investors.

It comes a week after David pocketed more than $400,000 selling 1 million shares on-market in January.

Digging deeper in

Thor Mining (ASX:THR) director, and prolific tweeter, Paul Johnson now owns 5 per cent of the company, a fact he’s particularly pleased about.

A company ASX release last week says Mr Johnson he bought 250,000 shares on the AIM market in London for £7,750 ($13,750). *

It brings the total number of shares he controls, along with his wife, to 32.25 million.

Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI) managing director David Reeve spent $101,400 buying 2.6 million shares on market last week.

Calidus backdoor-listed on to the ASX in June last year. In September the stock hit 6c on news of a $10 million cap raise and a joint venture with gold darling Novo Resources. But it has since traded around the 3.8c to 4c mark.

Paragon Care (ASX:PGC) directors Geoffrey Sam and Brett Cheong swapped 344,827 shares.

Mr Sam paid 72.5c per share in an off-market trade worth in total $250,000, which was bang on where the shares traded at on-market last week. Mr Cheong now owns 2.3 million shares, while Mr Sam controls a total of 1.1 million.

8Common (ASX:8CO) founder, managing director and chairman Kah Wui ‘Nic’ Lim took up $348,105 of a rights issue in the software maker last week for 11.6 million shares.

He now owns 23.2 million shares in his company, bumping his ownership up to 18 per cent.

And Neil Lithgow at Bauxite Resources (ASX:BAU) is either firmly backing the business — or thinks hostile bidder Mercantile Investment Co (ASX:MVT) might be in with a shot.

He bought 433,853 shares, or $26,000 worth, on market, just after Mercantile crept up to 15 per cent of the register.

Elsewhere, Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) directors have been rewarded with the conversion of performance rights after the company sustained a share price above 3c, and following the release of a measured resource at the company’s flagship Gabanintha vanadium project in Western Australia.

Chairman Brenton Lewis and managing director Vincent Algar received 5 million shares each and director Leslie Ingraham 2 million.

They collectively own 4 per cent of the business.

Over at Sky and Space (ASX:SAS), big boss Mier Moalem, COO Maya Glickman-Pariente, and Yonatan Shrama received 18 million of a 23.5 million pot of performance rights. The milestone they hit was staying with the company since it listed in May 2016.

Anish Katta is the new owner of 43 per cent of iCollege (ASX:ICT).

He completed the sale of his company Manthano into the business last week and is now managing director of iCollege. He was already a director of iCollege when the deal was proposed last year.

And if you’re invested in property developer Land & Homes Group (ASX:LHM) you’ll know chairman Choon Keng Kho has bought $1.4 million of a $3 million convertible rights issue in October — after initially saying he was only up for $250,000.

He is also the chairman of tech park developer Lionhub (ASX:LHB)  — another company he’s been bailing out for some time.

He controls 47 per cent of Land & Homes Group.

* The next company director appendix, which brought Mr Johnson’s spend up to about £16,000, come in on Monday morning.