They're on the case , it's the whole enchalada this time. Viva Mexico!
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Court freezes assets of some who traded in CompUSA stock
Source: Associated Press
Publication date: 2001-05-11
DALLAS (AP) -- A federal judge has frozen more than $6 million in assets of eight Mexican nationals and four offshore companies suspected of insider trading.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that a judge in the southern district of New York issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants, who allegedly made nearly $4 million in profits by buying CompUSA stock shortly before a tender offer from a Mexican holding company last year.
Shares in CompUSA soared 40 percent on Jan. 24, 2000 after Grupo Sanborns announced a tender offer for the computer-retailing company.
Grupo Sanborns, which is controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, paid $10.10 in cash for each share of CompUSA didn't own, a 50 percent premium over the retailer's previous closing price.
The eight individual defendants include Alejandro Duclaud Gonzalez de Castilla, a partner in the Mexico City law firm that represented Grupo Sanborns in the final stages of its tender-offer negotiations.
The SEC charged that Grupo Sanborns had taken major steps to start the tender offer seven weeks before it was publicly announced. On Jan. 6, 2000, more than two weeks before the announcement, the defendants bought 325,000 shares -- 27 percent of the stock's trading volume -- at about $5.25 each, the SEC said.
The defendants bought another 273,000 shares at about $5.50 apiece on Jan. 19, and 170,000 shares the next day.
The SEC said that within two days of the tender offer becoming public, the defendants sold all their CompUSA stock, making profits of nearly $4 million.
The SEC said that besides Duclaud, other defendants are his wife, Ana Igartua Baranda de Duclaud; his brother, Jose Antonio Duclaud Gonzalez de Castilla; Rodrigo Igartua Baranda; Pablo Velazquez Baranda; Martha Baranda de Igartua; Elvira Baranda Garcia and Maricruz Lozano Ledzma.
The four companies named as defendants by the SEC are Anushka Trust, Caribbean Legal Trust, Antares Holdings Investment Ltd., and Banrise Ltd. BVI.
A spokeswoman for CompUSA declined comment. Jorge Serrano, a spokesman for Slim's Mexican conglomerate Grupo Carso, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The order issued by a federal judge Thursday temporarily blocks the individuals from accessing their assets held in brokerage accounts in the United States or disposing of any assets to interfere with the SEC's attempt to recover ill-gotten gains and obtain civil penalties, the agency said.
The SEC said it was helped by authorities in the English Channel island of Guernsey. Earlier this year, the island country received 20 percent of $1.5 million seized from a convicted stock swindler, and an official said his country has helped U.S. investigators seize tainted funds in at least 30 cases in recent years. |
