Enron Official Offers Plea

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Kevin Hannon, the former chief operating officer of Enron Broadband Services (EBS), to pay disgorgements and civil penalties of $3.2 million, according to a settlement announced yesterday.Hannon has also agreed “to cooperate with the government’s con...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 2, 2004

U.S. Antidumping Sanctions on Tap

The World Trade Organization has reportedly decided to authorize sanctions against the United States by the European Union and other leading U.S. trade partners in response to what the WTO deems to be illegal antidumping rules.The ruling could be a potential major blow to the U.S. steel industry,...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 1, 2004

‘Corporate Kleptocracy’ at Hollinger

Conrad Black, Hollinger International’s former chief executive officer, David Radler, its former chief operating officer, and other controlling shareholders and associates constituted a “corporate kleptocracy” which systematically looted the company of more than $400 million, according to a repo...

By Ed Zwirn • Sept. 1, 2004

SEC Lets Up on the Accelerator

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a one-year postponement of the third and final phase of regulations designed to speed up quarterly and annual filings for larger companies.According to the SEC, the proposal to postpone this final phase would “allow additional time and opportuni...

By Craig Schneider and Ed Zwirn • Aug. 30, 2004

Guilty Plea for Ex-Enron IR Chief

Mark Koenig, the former head of investor relations at Enron Corp., pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting securities fraud, according to news reports. Like former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, Koenig has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, adding to the roster of po...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 27, 2004

Citigroup Sued over Enron-Linked Notes

On behalf of institutional investors, Bank of New York has filed suit against Citigroup regarding the sale of financial instruments linked to Enron, Reuters reported.The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, alleged that Citigroup knew Enron’s debts were far greater than the numbers pre...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 27, 2004

Real-Time Reporting Takes Flight

A new Sarbanes-Oxley Act rules that force companies to become faster and more forthcoming about disclosing material events went into effect today.As a way of implementing the “Real-Time Issuer Disclosure” provision of Sarbox Section 409, the SEC expanded the existing rule that governs disclosure ...

By Marie Leone • Aug. 23, 2004

Funds Ordered to End Broker Incentives

The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered mutual funds to stop paying higher commissions to brokers who promote the companies’ funds and required portfolio managers to reveal investments in funds they supervise, Bloomberg reported.Wednesday’s SEC action continues the agency’s crackdown on th...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 19, 2004

Janus Firm Settles Fraud Charges

Registered investment adviser Janus Capital Management LLC (JCM) agreed to pay $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle charges that the Denver-based company entered into “undisclosed market-timing agreements with certain investors.”As part of a settlement including ...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 19, 2004

Canada Opens Probe of Nortel Accounting

Telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. is facing legal scrutiny on its home turf as well as in the United States.Nortel, said to be Canada’s largest high-tech company, announced Monday that it had received a letter from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 18, 2004

SEC Could Sue Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods Inc. is on notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to disclose perks it handed out to some of its executives.The SEC staff is recommending that the commission bring a civil law suit against the meat-producing giant, and possibly seek monetary damages.T...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 18, 2004

Insurers Could Pay for Patent Infringements

Corporations could have more protection from intellectual-property-related lawsuits than they might have thought.In what the National Underwriter Online Property & Casualty News Service called a “precedent-setting decision,” a federal appeals court panel has ruled that commercial insurance po...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 17, 2004

Say It Ain’t So, Spidey

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued three people for manipulating the stock of Stan Lee Media, an online entertainment company founded by the comic book legend that collapsed in late 2000.The SEC sued company co-founder Peter Paul, former senior operations executive Stephen Gordon; an...

By Ed Zwirn • Aug. 17, 2004

SEC Staff Mulls Compliance Delays

The Securities and Exchange Commission is giving serious thought to putting off corporate implementation of some of its rulemaking initiatives in order to give senior managers and auditors time to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley’s internal controls provisions in a letter-perfect way.No telling yet wha...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 16, 2004

Life Insurer CFOs Concerned about Sarbox Costs

Most life insurance CFOs are worried about the costs associated with implementing Sarbanes-Oxley and the demands required to meet the internal control requirements of Section 404.These are among the key findings from the most recent survey of 32 finance chiefs from North American life insurance c...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 16, 2004

Sarbox 404 Costs 63 Percent Higher than Expected

Companies seem to be shelling out much more money than they had figured on to comply with Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act.The provision, which goes into effect Nov. 15, will cost public companies 63 percent on average more than they had previously thought, according to a new survey by Fina...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 12, 2004

Plea Hearing Cancelled for Boeing’s Ex-CFO

Michael Sears has received what’s likely to be a temporary reprieve. The Aug. 11 hearing at which the former Boeing CFO was planning to plead guilty to helping a former Air Force official get a job at the aerospace giant while she was overseeing a huge contract was canceled by prosecutors, accor...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 11, 2004

SEC Fines Insurers $20 Million

The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined a number of insurance companies $20 million for “facilitating market timing of mutual funds through the sale of variable annuities.”The insurance companies include three subsidiaries of Conseco, Inc.: CIHC, Inc.; Conseco Services, LLC; and Conseco...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 10, 2004

CFO Takes Leave, Citing SEC Scrutiny

The CFO of ABX Air Inc., Duane Kimble, agreed with the air-cargo company that he would take an immediate personal leave of absence from the after being informed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the agency is considering bringing a civil action suit against him.The warning to Kimble ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 6, 2004

Bristol-Myers to Pay $150 Million in SEC Settlement

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will pay $150 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that alleged the pharmaceutical giant inflated sales and earnings to fool investors. The fine, double what published reports had predicted, was settled without company officials admitting or denyin...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 5, 2004

Sarbox Spurs Technology Spending, CFOs Say

About half of 177 CFOs and managing directors of U.S.-based multinationals responding to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey say their companies are mulling buying new technologies over the next 12 months to improve their current reporting infrastructure.Further, 46 percent of the executives ...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 5, 2004

SEC Settles with Halliburton

The Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Halliburton Co. and two former finance executives for failure to disclose a change to its accounting practice during a period when vice president Dick Cheney served as chief executive officer.Halliburton also agreed to pay a $7.5 mill...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 4, 2004

Unfair Opinions?

The latest move to clean up perceived conflicts of interest on Wall Street is coming from the Street itself, as NASD contemplates new rules for fairness opinions.Formal opinions about whether a merger or acquisition price falls within a fair range have been standard in deals since 1985, when the ...

By Tim Reason • Aug. 3, 2004

Ex-Enron Division Chief Pleads Guilty

Kenneth Rice, the former chief executive officer of Enron Corp.’s high-speed Internet division, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, according to several news accounts.In 2003, reported the Associated Press, Rice was charged with sellin...

By Craig Schneider • Aug. 3, 2004

SEC: 1,300 ”Whistles” Blown Each Day

The Securities and Exchange Commission has fielded nearly 250,000 tips about possible securities-law violations so far this year, according to USA Today.In fact, the commission receives more than 1,300 emails each day through its online complaint service, according to the paper, citing John Stark...

By Stephen Taub • Aug. 3, 2004