Users May Put Proxy Firms under Glass

As more questions surface about the activities of the Shanghai-based company that bought proxy advisor and investor research firm Glass, Lewis & Co. this year, those who use such advisory firms are expressing concerns about the whole proxy-services business.Glass Lewis, owned by Xinhua Financ...

By Roy Harris • May 29, 2007

CFO Said to Engineer $1M Embezzlement

The longtime chief financial officer of a small Texas environmental-engineering firm has been charged with embezzling as much as $1 million.Dennis Lynn Weiss of San Antonio–based Raba-Kistner Consultants allegedly diverted funds for two to three years, reported the Associated Press. The scheme wa...

By Stephen Taub • May 18, 2007

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Pillow Talk Gone Wild?

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced yet another case of insider trading that might well have begun as pillow talk.On Monday, the SEC filed charges against former Oracle vice president Christopher Balkenhol. According to the commission, Balkenhol learned about secret merger negoti...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • May 14, 2007

Former Siemens Finance Chief Convicted

Andreas Kley, a former finance chief for the power generation unit of German engineering giant Siemens, was found guilty of breach of trust and of bribing managers at Italian utility Enel, the Associated Pressreported. Former employee and consultant Horst Vigener was convicted of abetting bribery...

By Stephen Taub • May 14, 2007

SEC Charges Couple in Dow Jones Trades

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against a Hong Kong couple who allegedly engaged in illegal insider trading before the public announcement of Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones.The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, maintains th...

By Laura DeMars • May 8, 2007

Letting Investors Play the Proxy Game

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to propose new rules, perhaps early this summer, to increase shareholder participation in the proxy process, according to chairman Christopher Cox. The new rules might be in place in time for the 2008 annual meeting season.An SEC spokesman said Cox mad...

By Roy Harris • May 8, 2007

Insider Charges for Credit Suisse Banker

A Credit Suisse investment banker faces criminal charges of insider trading before nine merger transactions, including the blockbuster leveraged buyout of TXU.Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, a member of Credit Suisse’s Global Energy Group in New York, allegedly netted more than $7 million in procee...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • May 4, 2007

Beyond Backdating: Options Theft

Forget backdating.Outright “theft of stock options” was the allegation levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Vencent A. Donlan, a former stock-options administrator for Wireless Facilities Inc. The SEC alleges that Donlan defrauded the company by illegally issuing and transferr...

By Stephen Taub • May 4, 2007

College Loan, Officer?

Texas Southern University’s former CFO, Quintin Wiggins, was convicted Thursday of funneling almost $300,000 in public funds to the school’s former president so she could dress up her home.According to the Associated Press, Wiggins diverted $286,000 of university funds into secret accounts that e...

By Laura DeMars • May 3, 2007

I’ll Keep My Remarks Brief…

Who do corporate boards look to for help in understanding a company’s IT strategy? Very often the CFO, according to a new survey from Deloitte and Corporate Board Member magazine. But don’t spend too much time concocting PowerPoint slides that explain your IT infrastructure: the survey also found...

By Scott Leibs • May 2, 2007

Board Battles

You could have cut the tension with a putty knife. As one shareholder group was squeezing Home Depot Inc.’s board to divest a major unit last winter, other investors tried to chip away at CEO Bob Nardelli’s $38 million pay package. Earlier this year, the shareholder turmoil cost Nardelli his job....

By Alix Stuart • May 1, 2007

Amgen Hubby Didn’t Listen to His Wife

Gary K. Melton should have listened to his wife.Instead, Melton — who is married to Amgen’s vice president of strategic sourcing and procurement, Farryn Melton — finds himself settling insider-trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The commission alleged that in November 2005...

By Dave Cook and Stephen Taub • April 24, 2007

Global Treasury Mismanagement

David F. Verhotz, once the senior vice president for global treasury management at KeyBank, will serve eight years in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud, according to Gregory A. White, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.U.S. District Judge John R. Adams sentenced Verhotz to 9...

By Stephen Taub • April 20, 2007

Paper Fires Entire Accounting Department

The Chicago Defender, a venerable weekly newspaper, has fired its entire accounting department after discovering a fraudulent payroll scheme, according to Editor & Publisher.The four-person accounting staff was reportedly terminated for issuing and cashing checks made out to two former newsro...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • April 18, 2007

Icahn, Motorola Headed for a Showdown

Carl Icahn is turning up the heat on Motorola. The billionaire corporate raider cum hedge fund activist asserted in a letter sent to shareholders on Friday that he was disappointed that the company did not add him to the board of directors. He wrote that the appointment would have allowed Motorol...

By Stephen Taub • April 16, 2007

Dow Fires Two Execs amid Buyout Rumors

Dow Chemical announced that it fired senior advisor Pedro Reinhard, a board member and former chief financial officer, and Romeo Kreinberg, an executive vice president, after determining that they were “involved in unauthorized discussions with third parties about the potential acquisition of the...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • April 12, 2007

Take-Two’s CFO Resigns Amid Investor Ire

Take-Two Interactive Software announced that Chief Financial Officer Karl Winters resigned, effective immediately. Lainie Goldstein, who currently serves as senior vice president of finance, was named interim CFO until a permanent replacement is named. The company said a search for a permanent CF...

By Stephen Taub • April 10, 2007

Scrushy to Be GPS-enabled

Richard Scrushy must wear a monitoring device when traveling outside his home area, a federal judge has ruled.The founder and former chief executive officer of HealthSouth, who was acquitted in 2005 on all counts in connection with the company’s massive accounting fraud, was convicted last summer...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • April 10, 2007

Former Endocare Execs Indicted

A federal grand jury has indicted two former executives of medical-device company Endocare, chairman and CEO Paul W. Mikus and CFO and COO John V. Cracchiolo, for an alleged fraud that cost investors at least $200 million.According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Califor...

By Dave Cook • April 10, 2007

Student-loan Execs Placed on Leave

CIT Group announced that it has placed three senior executives at its Student Loan Xpress subsidiary — vice chairman Robert deRose, chief executive officer Mike Shaut, and president Fabrizio Balestri — on administrative leave.Randall Chesler, president of CIT Consumer Finance, will assume interim...

By Stephen Taub • April 9, 2007

“Grand Theft Auto” Directors Driven Out

A group of powerful investors moved in on Thursday’s annual meeting of Take-Two Interactive Software and took five board seats from the “Grand Theft Auto” video-game maker.The investor group — including hedge-fund giants D.E. Shaw, SAC Capital, and Tudor Investment, as well as Oppenheimer Funds —...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • March 30, 2007

Hedge-Fund Manager Eyes Bisys Board Seat

Outsourcing services provider Bisys Group disclosed that hedge-fund manager Ahmet Okumus has requested a seat on the board.The president of New York-based Okumus Capital and owner of 10.41 percent of the company’s shares, Okumus stated in a letter to Bisys that he has “the utmost confidence in th...

By Stephen Taub • March 27, 2007

Proxy-less Proxy Fight at Take-Two

A number of newly powerful shareholders of Take-Two Interactive Software, the company best-known for its blockbuster “Grand Theft Auto” series of video games, are teaming up for a relatively unusual board election at the company’s annual meeting this Thursday.Rather than mailing out proxy materia...

By Stephen Taub • March 26, 2007

SEC Alleges False Homeland Security Deal

A Utah-based technology company and its CEO made at least $1.5 million by disseminating false claims of a lucrative deal with the Department of Homeland Security, alleged the Securities and Exchange Commission.The commission charged that beginning in November 2005, CyberKey Solutions and its chie...

By Stephen Taub and Dave Cook • March 21, 2007

”Fraud Fighter” at Odds with Usana

Usana Health Sciences disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry following allegations by Barry Minkow, a felon who now heads the Fraud Discovery Institute.Usana, which makes personal care and weight management products, stated that it is cooperating fu...

By Stephen Taub • March 20, 2007