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Backdating litigation fails to deliver
in Sox First, on May 16, 2008
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Two years ago, there was plenty of talk about how the backdating scandals would turn into a lawyers' picnic. Lawyers, who are always quick to find new ways of making a buck, were filing lawsui...
SOX and backdating
in Sox First, on April 11, 2008
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Much has been said about Sarbanes-Oxley stopping backdating. But is that true? Has it actually improved corporate governance? Under Sarbanes-Oxley, all high-level executive stock option grants an...
Backdated tax gifts
in Sox First, on February 29, 2008
...avid Yermack , reported in Porttfolio.com . Yermack's research was absolutely critical in the backdating revelations . According to Yermack, chief executives and chairmen of public companies, i...
Michael Dell and deja vu
in Sox First, on September 10, 2007
...tional security adviser." And then of course, there's Steve Jobs handling of Apple's backdating shenanigans . Yeah, a bit of buck-passing goes a long way in business and politics.
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The Brocade case: now for the gatekeepers
in Sox First, on August 21, 2007
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Now that the Justice Department got its first backdating scalp in Brocade Communications System's former CEO Gregory Reyes, the Securities and Exchange Commission has now targeted compa...
Backdating fallout continues
in Sox First, on August 14, 2007
...ast week's conviction of former Brocade chief executive officer Gregory Reyes of stock option backdating continues to send shivers through Silicon Valley . More indictments are likely to follo...
US corporate governance - 9 flash points
in Sox First, on July 12, 2007
... banker", because it seems like the investor has been forgotten"); executive pay; options backdating, including its variations of springloading and bullet dodging; hedge fund activism; priva...
Goodbye Backdating, Hello New Executive Stock Scandal
in Businesspundit, on June 26, 2007
...buy/sell stocks based on insider information will always get them busted. Just when you thought the backdating thing was winding down, a new piece of research indicates that 10b5-1 plans might be ...
Go to jail: a corporate executive survival guide
in Sox First, on May 23, 2007
...ing the books. And then of course, there's Conrad Black who faces the prospect of spending the next 102 years in prison. The harsh sentences are part of a trend that might well reflect society&#... ...s former general counsel, William Sorin, has been sentenced to jail for his part in stock options backdating. The company's former CFO David Kreinberg is looking at doing time and the US is tryi...
Going greener with Apple's options
in Sox First, on May 7, 2007
... its green credentials by reducing or eliminating the use of toxic materials in its products in the next few years and increasing its recycling of computers and iPods. As Portfolio points ou... ...n the past, I have written about Apple's environmental issues and the way it has handled the backdating of options . Now Apple has announced it's boosting its green credentials by reduci...
Jobs unlikely to face criminal charges over options backdating
in Sox First, on April 23, 2007
...For the Apple-bashers hoping regulators would throw the book at Apple chief Steve Jobs over options backdating, better take a cold shower!!! Months into the federal probe of options backdating at App...
The backdating list grows
in Sox First, on March 28, 2007
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The number of companies now implicated in the growing backdating scandal has hit 257, according to a report from Glass Lewis . That's more than double the number we've been reading abou...
How backdating hits shareholder wealth
in Sox First, on March 23, 2007
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Here's the conundrum about backdating. Everyone knows it's cheating shareholders. That's why it's been compared to betting on yesterday's horse races. But unlike other types o...
Apple un-backdates stock options
in Sox First, on March 18, 2007
... by all those backdated options. First at one end, a Disney probe has confirmed there was some backdating but it appears to clear Jobs of any wrong doing, reports the Mercury News . I had looke...
Backdating and 9/11
in Sox First, on March 8, 2007
... a difficult period. What's significant here is that this is the first time they have admitted backdating. And as the piece suggests, this could turn nasty and become a lawyers' picnic. The ...
Backdating: The Al Capone solution
in Sox First, on February 19, 2007
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Bad news for the 170 companies now being investigated for backdating stock option - the tax man is coming to get you . The IRS is giving companies the opportunity to pay the 20 per cent tax plus...
SOX slaps lawyers
in Sox First, on February 19, 2007
...al year in which they were granted. The time gap made it easier for them to rip off shareholders by backdating options. Sarbanes-Oxley tightened the rules and made it harder to backdate with the requi...
Jobs share probe widens
in Sox First, on February 12, 2007
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The smell over the Apple share backdating mess gets worse and worse. Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has widened its investigation into the matter after it emerged that Apple chief exe...
Bush backdating - all in the family
in Sox First, on February 9, 2007
...ngdoing, they did benefit from stock options not approved by shareholders. Wonder who's next?
... ...rds the end of last year, I talked about the president's kid brother, Marvin, and stock option backdating . His little bro was a director of HCC Insurance Holdings at the time when it was backdat...
Business and morality
in Sox First, on February 6, 2007
...usiness are now prominent against a background of obscenely inflated CEO pay packages, stock option backdating and other scandals . But how do you get a handle on moral behavior in business? Is ...
Capitalism, Trust, and the Ted Williams Attitude
in Businesspundit, on January 30, 2007
...ny corporations are now doing to that trust, I feel queasy. Outrageous - yes, obscene - pay. Greedy backdating of stock options, which in my opinion is straight-up theft. Managers buying assets from t...
The Apple case: where to now?
in Sox First, on January 27, 2007
..., U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan was sacked, and has hired legal placement company MLegal to find him his next job. Ryan's No. 2, Eumi Choi - the other prosecutor on the Apple case - has had her resume ... ...US Attorney's office in San Francisco is in upheaval with the departure of key players into the backdating investigations, including the one involving Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs. But...
Stock options backdating jigsaw
in Sox First, on January 25, 2007
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Some interesting questions come out of America's epidemic of stock options backdating scandals. Like how did the practice begin? And why did it spread so quickly? One reason would be the clos...
Trust in business heading south
in Sox First, on January 15, 2007
...arbanes-Oxley was supposed to be about restoring investor confidence, it's failed. The ongoing backdating scandals and the flood of massive executive packages would not have helped.
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Clean CEO" is a 2007 Hot Job
in Bizinformer, on January 10, 2007
... With more than 2200 companies possibly engaged in backdating, scores of shareholder derivative suits are in the making.
The scandal has resulted in high executive churn, with more than 30 senior ...
Is Steve Jobs untouchable?
in Sox First, on January 5, 2007
...ernance gods?'' asks Burrows. Expect to see this question come up again and again over the next few months. The company has been hit with a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of granting opti... ...by BusinessWeek writer Peter Burrows after Apple exonerated Steve Jobs of wrongdoing in the backdating scandal. Certainly, I made the point in this blog entry earlier this week that Apple&#...
Rough year for Fortune 100 CEOs: 14% LOST Their JOBS
in Bizinformer, on January 4, 2007
...ring 2006. Only one, former United Health CEO William McGuire, left specifically because of options backdating. Yet, three other companies in the Fortune 100, while not terminating CEOs, have been sub...
Fall in securities fraud lawsuits
in Sox First, on January 3, 2007
...Federal controls over corporations, check this piece in the Corporate Research Project e-letter. Next year's data from the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse should be in... ...ngs but in 2006 there was only one. The figures become even more striking when you take out the 22 backdating cases. Then the figure drops down to only 90 cases, down 53 per cent from the historic no...
Bad taste of Apple's options
in Sox First, on January 2, 2007
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Apple last week formally exonerated Steve Jobs of any wrongdoing over the options backdating scandal. But the questions linger. Apple's 10K report to the Securities and Exchange Comm...
Report that Apple falsified documents: don't worry, be happy say analysts
in Sox First, on December 27, 2006
...n the Law.com site . For the benefit of those who have been on mars for most of this year, backdating occurs when a company betrays shareholders and unethically makes its executives rich big ...
Top 10 business shenanigans for 2006
in Sox First, on December 25, 2006
What a year it's been! The stories have just kept coming, and certainly kept me busy here. Scandals and litigation have all been part of the mix covered by Sox First this year. And Governments and business are copping plenty of heat to lift their game. And it's now coming from all Quar...
Lucky directors, lucky CEOs: the backdating club
in Sox First, on December 19, 2006
...he way hundreds of lucky US company bosses inflated their pay by as much as 10 per cent by secretly backdating share options, with the options being granted at the point of the month when the share ...
Bush's kid brother and backdating
in Sox First, on November 25, 2006
...connections coming out of the announcement by Houston-based HCC Insurance Holdings that it had been backdating stock option grants from 1995. The President's youngest brother Marvin was a directo...
Corporate governance turkeys of the year
in Sox First, on November 23, 2006
Yes, it's that time of year to nominate the biggest turkeys since last November. This year's list is extensive. There's no shortage of candidates so I thought better list them all and let you decide.
Backdating and lucky CEOs
in Sox First, on November 18, 2006
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So you think backdating stock options is legit? Check a new study which has found that hundreds of US company bosses inflated their pay by as much as 10 per cent by secretly backdating share opti...
Stock options backdating: six degrees of separation
in Sox First, on October 20, 2006
... examining whether directors who sit on more than one company board may have spread the practice of backdating stock-option grants, reports Bloomberg . And research from the Corporate Library shows...
Questions continue about Apple's options
in Sox First, on October 17, 2006
So Apple was held up last week as a model of crisis management, with some even claiming Steve Jobs ' statement on its problems with options, and the resignation of Jobs' adviser Fred Anderson, showed that everything was above board. But the questions are continuing. Laurie Fly...
Apple & HP: a study in contrasts?
in Sox First, on October 5, 2006
...the news report of Apple boss Steve Jobs trying to clear the decks, and distance himself from the backdating scandal at Apple, by apologising to shareholders and employees, swearing it was out of ch...
Cablevision Systems: We pay dead people
in Sox First, on September 25, 2006
...e web is buzzing over what can be described as the ultimate golden parachute. Yes, the stock option backdating scandal has reached new depths with revelations that cable TV operator Cablevisio...
Options valuation: beware the hidden bull
in Sox First, on September 8, 2006
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While Congress is looking into what it can do about options backdating and soaring executive pay , some interesting revelations have emerged in Australia about another options scam. ISS Austral...
Are lawyers the next backdating target?
in Sox First, on August 31, 2006
...benefits. But questions are now being asked whether the law firms that provided the advice are the next in line. The grounds for potential liability of law firms are set out here in this McDermott ... ...
So far, the wave of lawsuits and official action arising out of the stock options backdating scams has focused on the public companies that had provided the benefits. But questions are now being ...
The war on options scams
in Sox First, on August 14, 2006
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Last week was a big week in the US for options backdating scandals . Former executives of Brocade, former president and CEO Gregory Reyes and former vice president of human resources Stepha...
Lawyers line up for backdating cases
in Sox First, on August 3, 2006
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Back in June, I blogged on how the backdating scandal would turn into a lawyers' picnic . Sure enough, the litigation is gathering pace. A growing number of companies are under investigatio...
PCAOB alert on backdating
in Sox First, on July 31, 2006
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Auditors have been put on notice about options backdating. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued its first ever "audit practice alert" on options backdating. "...
Investors' class actions fall
in Sox First, on July 28, 2006
...#39;s been a permanent shift. Who can blame them? Don't forget, lawyers are preparing for the next wave of lawsuits in relation to the options backdating scams . And while investors have had li... ...? Don't forget, lawyers are preparing for the next wave of lawsuits in relation to the options backdating scams . And while investors have had little reason to sue in a rising market that had le...
New SEC rules: they're getting paid how much?
in Sox First, on July 27, 2006
...oney than executive officers named in financial statements. The new rules also weigh in on options backdating and springloading but the new rules apply only to the disclosure, not to questions of whe...
Ethics challenges for HR
in Sox First, on July 24, 2006
... her former boss, ex-Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes are facing criminal and civil fraud charges over the backdating of options. As part of the scheme, Jensen allegedly created, or instructed others to cre...
Execs charged in stock options probe - just a start
in Sox First, on July 21, 2006
The first executives have been charged with fraud in the stock options probe and there are more to come. The former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems Inc , Gregory Reyes, and another executive Stephanie Jensen are the first to be charged. The pair also face civil charges and if...
Stock Options and the 9/11 factor
in Sox First, on July 19, 2006
...ise some obvious questions, particularly in the context of the investigations now going on into the backdating of options and potentially illegal pay practices. Still, there might be an upside for in...
The widespread practice of option timing
in Sox First, on July 17, 2006
Backated options aren't just Limited to a few bad apples! Seems that more than 2200 US companies might have manipulated the timing of stock-option grants to executives between 1996 and 2005, according to a new study . And the study shows that some companies were more likely to do i...
Options probe hits share prices
in Sox First, on July 10, 2006
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The backdating probes are clearly having an impact on performance. Concerned that allegations of executives living it up after backdating options points to another Tyco, Adelphia or WorldCom, pan...
Red flags for backdated options
in Sox First, on July 7, 2006
... adviser Glass, Lewis & Co have revealed the warning signs for companies engaging in options backdating practices. The red flags include missing Form 4 filings, options repeatedly granted whe...
Stock option tremors in Silicon Valley
in Sox First, on July 3, 2006
With Apple being the latest to admit there have been what it's called "irregularities'' with stock options , the fallout from the scandals is expected to send tremors through Silicon Valley. Stock option chicanery has been disclosed by at least 57 companies, including 25 based...
Options scams: timing is everything
in Sox First, on June 27, 2006
... to issue stock option grants, says SEC chairman Christopher Cox . Now, to my way of thinking the backdating options is a fundamentally corrupt practice. Setting the grant price at a level which wil...
The backdating game: the regulators and lawyers' picnic
in Sox First, on June 14, 2006
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Regulators plan to crunch the backdating of options, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox told the Washington Post . And needless to say, the biggest scandal since ...
Options scams: the regulators move in
in Sox First, on June 5, 2006
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The fallout from the options backdating scandal continues and the dogs are barking. The number of public companies under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission or federal ...
Interesting Business Links
in Businesspundit, on May 31, 2006
...stantly associated with good news. Delivering bad news upwards should preferably be left to the mug next to you. ... ... models.
The easiest way to fool smart people is to sound clever .
A good discussion on options backdating .
The cult of overwork is back.
How did your boss get to the top ?
In the end, th...
Untangling SOX: the post-Enron debate
in Sox First, on May 30, 2006
Now that Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are set to spend the rest of their lives in the slammer, questions are being asked (again) whether it's time to unwind Sarbanes-Oxley. Apparently the system has been shown to work so well that we don't need it.
Looking for the next Enron
in Sox First, on May 29, 2006
In the new york times over the weekend, Gretchen Morgenson came out with the rhetorical question Are Enrons Bustin' Out All Over .
What have we learned from Enron?
in Sox First, on May 26, 2006
That's the Question that's been asked since the jurors brought down the guilty verdict for Lay and Skilling.
Business Links
in Businesspundit, on May 24, 2006
...other Silicon Valley .
Jory analyzes working smart vs. working hard .
Businessweek wonders if backdating options will lead to new rules . The thing is that companies would have no incentive to m...