SEC won’t bring charges in all options backdating cases

“U.S. securities regulators said on Saturday they do not expect to bring charges in all of the 130 or so stock option backdating matters they are investigating and have defined factors used to evaluate the cases,” Karey Wutkowski reports for Reuters.

Wutkowski reports, “Antonia Chion, associate director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said the SEC is looking at ‘how bad is the conduct and how good is the evidence.’

“‘I don’t believe we’re going to be bringing 130 cases,’ Chion said during a panel discussion at the annual SEC Speaks event,” Wutkowski reports.

“Authorities are trying to determine if companies manipulated the grant dates of stock options to boost the profits available to corporate executives who got them,” Wutkowski reports. “Chion said during the panel that the first thing SEC investigators are looking at when evaluating backdating cases is the duration of the misconduct and the number of instances of backdating.”

“She said the level of the companies’ cooperation is also a strong consideration and that companies’ internal investigations can speed along the SEC’s work. ‘We really do look at what is quality of the investigation and the breadth and the scope of how it’s been handled,’ Chion said.”

Full article here.

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13 Comments

  1. The highest profile is that of Lord Steven P. Jobs – more mileage for the authorities if they keep him in their sights, so it’s a very long way to go before it’s over for the Exhaulted One. Wonder if he will don his stage uniform when he takes the stand?

  2. That statement says nothing.

    You can read it in many ways and there was very little chance that they would press charges in all cases. They were always going to pursue some and not others. That’s what this statement says, but it doesn’t say who.

  3. I just think it looks more exalted when you add some more letters for emphasis. I learned that approach from Steven P. T. Barnum Jobs when he keeps saying things like “boom” or “it just works” or “this is going to change the world”.

    You know, over the top, ridiculous claims that bear no relation to reality.

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