Settlement in Monsanto Bribery Case

A former employee of agribusiness giant Monsanto has settled charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the bribery of an Indonesian official.The SEC complaint alleged that in 2002, Charles Martin, once Monsanto’s government affairs director for Asia, violated the Foreign Corru...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • March 7, 2007

Unraveled: Black’s Company Pleads Guilty

Ravelston, Conrad Black’s Toronto-based holding company, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District court in Chicago to a single count of fraud, according to published accounts.The company had been charged for its alleged role in a scheme that cost shareholders of Hollinger International — where Black w...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • March 6, 2007

WorldCom Ex-CEO: No One Else to Call On

Without comment or recorded dissent, the Supreme Court on Monday turned down the appeal of Bernard Ebbers, convicted in 2005 for his role in the WorldCom accounting scandal.Ebbers, 65, had sought a review of his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges. Last September, he reported to a federal ...

By Stephen Taub • March 5, 2007

Study: Company Patent Suits Dropping

Corporations have started going to court less often to protect their intellectual-property assets—partly because they’re getting less money when they win, according to a new study of trademark damages by PricewaterhouseCoopers.In 2005, the number of patent cases filed fell to 2,720, the first dec...

By David Katz • Feb. 27, 2007

Phoning It In

What’s the best way for an employee to blow the whistle on fraud or related infractions? The most popular way seems to be via hotlines or similar reporting tools. According to a joint report from the CSO Executive Council, an organization of corporate and government security executives, and The N...

By John McPartlin • Feb. 27, 2007

Senators Press SEC, PCAOB for 404 Delay

With overall corporate spending on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance apparently leveling off, two prominent U.S. Senators are zeroing in on easing Sarbox internal-controls on the smallest public companies.In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and Public Company Accoun...

By David Katz • Feb. 26, 2007

SEC Drops Charge Against Former CFO

A former chief financial officer of Halliburton Co. is in the clear from a legal perspective, after the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a charge against him related to the company’s change in accounting policy during the years that Vice President Dick Cheney served as chief executive o...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 26, 2007

Florida AG Chokes Off Medicaid Fraud

Nancy Ann Wood, the chief financial officer of Acute Care Team Inc., and five of her co-workers were arrested in Manatee County, Florida, on charges of Medicaid fraud and organized fraud. The six individuals, who were arrested on Friday, allegedly bilked the state Medicaid program out of more tha...

By Marie Leone • Feb. 23, 2007

HealthSouth CFO Avoids Prison, Again

Former HealthSouth chief financial officer Malcolm “Tadd” McVay was sentenced Thursday to five years’ probation, the same sentence an appeals court threw out last year.McVay — one of five former CFOs charged in connection with the company’s $2.7 billion accounting scandal — served as CFO for only...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 23, 2007

Investor: Sell the Company

Third Point LLC, a shareholder of Acorda Therapeutics, is flexing its muscle, pushing the board of directors to sell the company — or else. In a letter to Acorda CEO Ron Cohen, which was included in a regulatory filing, Third Point CEO Daniel Loeb strongly suggested that the board hire an investm...

By Marie Leone • Feb. 23, 2007

Banks Lose Bid to Delay Enron Trial

U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit will proceed as planned against three banks accused of participating in Enron’s massive accounting scandal, according to published accounts.Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Barclays Bank had sought to delay the trial,...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 22, 2007

Prosecutors Won’t Fight Westar Dismissal

Prosecutors won’t ask an appeals court to reconsider its decision to overturn the convictions of two former Westar Energy executives.Former chairman and chief executive officer David Wittig and former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake had each faced numerous counts, including conspiracy, wire f...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 21, 2007

RenaissanceRe Settles Shareholder Case for $13.5M

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has agreed to pay $13 million to settle a batch of shareholder derivative lawsuits.The insurer is not admitting liability in agreeing to settle the consolidated shareholder class-action securities litigation, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchang...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 21, 2007

Supremes Cut Down Weyerhaeuser Verdict

In a 9-0 verdict, the Supreme Court has thrown out a $79 million award against forest products company Weyerhaeuser, which had been accused of predatory buying and of attempting to monopolize the lumber market in the Pacific Northwest.The Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co., a Longview, Washington, ...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 20, 2007

SEC Cuts Registration Fees

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reduced its fees for securities transactions and registrations. Beginning this week, the cost for public companies and other issuers to register securities with the SEC has been reduced by 71.3 percent, and fees on securities transactions have been reduc...

By Sarah Johnson • Feb. 20, 2007

SEC Drops Altera Options Probe

Altera announced Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its investigation of the company’s stock-option practices and will not recommend any action against the company.The microchip maker disclosed last June that it would restate its financials for the prior 10 years to cor...

By Dave Cook • Feb. 20, 2007

DoJ Won’t Refloat “Enron Barge” Case

The Justice Department will not seek to overturn last summer’s appeals court decision to throw out most of the convictions against former Merrill Lynch executives charged in the infamous Enron barge case, according to The Houston Chronicle.Federal prosecutors had until Friday to appeal the 5th U....

By David Katz • Feb. 16, 2007

PCAOB’s Niemeier: No Sarbox Rollback

Charles Niemeier, a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, warned policy makers and other critics that they may damage the reputation and competitiveness of U.S. markets if they roll back the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other securities laws, reported Reuters.Niemeier made his remark...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • Feb. 16, 2007

Kennedy to SEC: Probe Sallie Mae Execs

This article has been updated since it was published on February 16. The original article stated that five Sallie Mae executives, including CFO Charles Andrews, sold stock within 10 days of the release of President Bush’s 2008 budget proposal; in fact, the trades were mandatory transactions relat...

By Marie Leone • Feb. 16, 2007

Not Invented Here

A seemingly mundane dispute over gas-pedal design may result in aSupreme Court decision that would invalidate patents deemed too “obvious.” And that may be bad news for, among others, companies that rushed to patent E-commerce business processes such as one-click transactions.The case, involving ...

By John McPartlin • Feb. 15, 2007

Insurer to Give Investors ”Say on Pay”

Insurance company Aflac announced on Wednesday that it will become the first major company to provide shareholders with a non-binding vote on executive pay packages.The disability insurer, well-known for television ads featuring a very persistent duck, reportedly came to its decision in response ...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 14, 2007

SEC Closer to Recognizing IFRS

The Securities and Exchange Commission will take another step toward recognizing International Financial Reporting Standards at a roundtable on its IFRS “roadmap,” scheduled for March 6.In the United States, foreign private issuers can already prepare regulatory filings using IFRS but must reconc...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • Feb. 13, 2007

For CA’s Kumar, Prison Must Wait

Sanjay Kumar — who admitted his role in the $2.2 billion fraud at Computer Associates, where he was chief executive officer — has been granted a two-month reprieve from prison, according to published accounts.Last April, reported Newsday, Kumar pleaded guilty to eight counts: securities fraud, co...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • Feb. 13, 2007

Not All Backdaters May Be Charged: SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission will pick its spots when deciding which companies should be the targets of backdating actions, a senior official stated on Saturday.During a panel discussion at the annual SEC Speaks conference in Washington, D.C., associate director of enforcement Antonia C...

By Stephen Taub • Feb. 12, 2007

Ignorance Is a Defense

Directors around the country sighed with relief late last year when the Delaware Supreme Court ruled for the defense in Stone v. Ritter, a lawsuit involving director liability at AmSouth Bancorporation. The court clarified its views on director liability, reaffirming the landmark 1996 Caremark de...

By Kate O'Sullivan • Feb. 12, 2007