The SEC has recently concluded stock option backdating investigations with a number of companies, notably technology companies such as Zoran and NVIDIA, leading to speculation that enforcement momentum in the stock option backdating scandal may be waning.
Not to worry. As the SEC Investigation Disclosure section of SM Litigator reports, there are still misdeeds aplenty (or allegations thereof) for the SEC to investigate. Consider direct mailing mega mogul, infoUSA, which reported yesterday that the SEC had launched a preliminary investigation concerning related party transactions, the reimbursement of expenses, other corporate expenditures and specific trading in the Company’s securities.
infoUSA is a company that cannot stay out of the limelight. In the past six months, reports of abusive sales practices involving elderly Americans culled from its mailing lists, jobs outsourced to India, and campaign finance ties of CEO Vinod Gupta to the Clintons, have led the company to reserve a significant slice of its home page for defenses of its practices, including praise from Bill Clinton in his new book, Giving.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
SM Litigator Wells Notices Search now Includes a Full Range of SEC Investigation Disclosures
We have culled Wells Notice disclosures from 8-K filings since the inception of SM Litigator. On Friday, we added an exciting, and significantly larger, new set of Investigations disclosures, including both Preliminary and Formal Investigation disclosures appearing in 8-K filings.
Our SEC Investigation Disclosure database now includes 789 company disclosures, broken out by recipient name and position (for Wells Notices), and allowing text search and search by CIK and Exchange. For example, using this database, you can learn about 19 CEOs who received Wells Notices, including CEOs at Berkshire Hathaway's General Reinsurance Corporation and Richard McGinn, CEO of Lucent Technologies.
Using the Exchange field, you can also learn view 132 notices of Preliminary Investigation from NYSE companies, including a recent (10/12/2007) disclosure from Zimmer Holdings regarding an SEC investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and an 8-K from Caremark RX reporting the completion of an SEC investigation into stock option grants, and a decision by the Commission not to recommend any enforcement action.
As we harvest these notices, we will also publish the most recent ones in our SM Litigator Daily News email.
Our SEC Investigation Disclosure database now includes 789 company disclosures, broken out by recipient name and position (for Wells Notices), and allowing text search and search by CIK and Exchange. For example, using this database, you can learn about 19 CEOs who received Wells Notices, including CEOs at Berkshire Hathaway's General Reinsurance Corporation and Richard McGinn, CEO of Lucent Technologies.
Using the Exchange field, you can also learn view 132 notices of Preliminary Investigation from NYSE companies, including a recent (10/12/2007) disclosure from Zimmer Holdings regarding an SEC investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and an 8-K from Caremark RX reporting the completion of an SEC investigation into stock option grants, and a decision by the Commission not to recommend any enforcement action.
As we harvest these notices, we will also publish the most recent ones in our SM Litigator Daily News email.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
CFTC Enforcement on SM Litigator
We released a great new tool on SM Litigator yesterday, that allows you to search a trove of enforcement actions data from the CFTC. This new search page resembles similar work we have done with SEC enforcement actions and PCAOB inspection reports and disciplinary proceedings.
The CFTC tool is unique because it lets you access hand-tagged data that is otherwise unavailable. For example, you can search enforcement actions by Defendant Name, Defendant Place of Employment, Position, Violation, Penalty type, Penalty Amount, and Other Sanctions. The data currently goes back to 2004, with plans to extend it back to 2000 in the next few months.
Access to this data lets you quickly analyze, evaluate, and understand details and trends in commodities and futures enforcement. With CFTC Enforcement Action Search, you can perform enforcement action trend analysis and quickly model and profile the range of any possible actions and penalties against a client or employee.
For example, using the CFTC enforcement tool, you can learn instantly that the CFTC has brought actions against 21 CEOs since 2004, for alleged violations ranging from Disclosure Violation and False Reporting to Missappropriation to Misrepresentation to Commodity Pool Fraud, and Commingling. By contrast, the CFTC has brought actions against only two Chief Financial Officers and one General Counsel.
The vast preponderance of the actions brought by the CFTC concern various kinds of fraud. However, the CFTC also brings significant numbers of actions against individuals and companies for false reporting, misrepresentation, and misappropriation. Recent actions include a very large settlement with BP Products for manipulation in the propane market and action against a variety of individuals involved in a multi-million dollar foreign currency options scam.
It's good stuff.
The CFTC tool is unique because it lets you access hand-tagged data that is otherwise unavailable. For example, you can search enforcement actions by Defendant Name, Defendant Place of Employment, Position, Violation, Penalty type, Penalty Amount, and Other Sanctions. The data currently goes back to 2004, with plans to extend it back to 2000 in the next few months.
Access to this data lets you quickly analyze, evaluate, and understand details and trends in commodities and futures enforcement. With CFTC Enforcement Action Search, you can perform enforcement action trend analysis and quickly model and profile the range of any possible actions and penalties against a client or employee.
For example, using the CFTC enforcement tool, you can learn instantly that the CFTC has brought actions against 21 CEOs since 2004, for alleged violations ranging from Disclosure Violation and False Reporting to Missappropriation to Misrepresentation to Commodity Pool Fraud, and Commingling. By contrast, the CFTC has brought actions against only two Chief Financial Officers and one General Counsel.
The vast preponderance of the actions brought by the CFTC concern various kinds of fraud. However, the CFTC also brings significant numbers of actions against individuals and companies for false reporting, misrepresentation, and misappropriation. Recent actions include a very large settlement with BP Products for manipulation in the propane market and action against a variety of individuals involved in a multi-million dollar foreign currency options scam.
It's good stuff.
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