SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Bear Stearns executives sold stock in the firm worth more than $20 million in December, although they remain big shareholders in the beleaguered broker, according to Thomson Financial data.

James Cayne, chairman of Bear BSC, -10.00% , sold 172,621 shares in December worth $15.4 million, while President Alan Schwartz sold 67,900 shares worth just over $6 million, Thomson data show.

Alan Greenberg, chairman of Bear's executive committee, sold 99,293 shares worth $8.8 million in December, while Chief Executive Officer Samuel Molinaro sold 27,726 shares worth almost $2.5 million, according to Thomson.

Insiders at Bear sold a total of 715,000 shares last year worth more than $75 million, up from 2006 but down considerably from 2004, when sales of more than 1.5 million shares worth $147.9 million took place, the data show.

Since 2000, Cayne has sold 2.37 million shares worth about $182.7 million, while Schwartz has sold more than one million shares for roughly $67.2 million.

Bear almost collapsed last week and had to be bailed out by J.P. Morgan Chase JPM, -0.84% and the Federal Reserve. J.P. Morgan offered to buy the broker for $2 a share, a huge discount to where the stock was trading just a week before.

The near-collapse has been a disaster for some staff. Executives and other employees at Bear own at least a quarter of the shares. See related story.

Wilmington Trust, which holds stock on behalf of executives and other employees, owns 23% of the firm's shares, Thomson data show. Some of those shares were awards as part of incentive plans.

One of those plans - a long-term one called the Capital Accumulation Plan - awarded restricted stock to senior managing directors of Bear. When those shares vested, executives usually sold and they did that in December 2007, according to InsiderScore, a Web site that tracks insider transactions.

Despite selling in December, Bear executives are still major shareholders of Bear. Cayne owns almost 5% of the firm and Schwartz owns almost 1%, according to Thomson data.