It wasn't the Airplane, it was love that killed King Kong:
Martha's mess hits Silicon Valley
Venture capitalist accused of dumping shares in Stewart's company
Carol Emert, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, August 23, 2002
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The long arm of the Martha Stewart scandal spread to Silicon Valley this week as shareholders sued venture capitalist John Doerr, who until recently served on the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
The suit alleges that Doerr, Stewart and other company insiders dumped 5.3 million Omnimedia shares worth $79 million based on private information about the scandal brewing over Stewart's sales of ImClone System shares.
Doerr, a general partner at Menlo Park's Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and arguably the country's best-known venture capitalist, sold his firm's 2 million shares for $29 million in March and resigned from the board, according to the suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
Stewart's sale of ImClone stock became public in June.
Doerr achieved a national profile in 1996 when, ironically, he successfully led the charge against California Proposition 211, which would have given shareholders more power to wage class-action lawsuits.
The answer is Campaign finance reform, and to allow the personal suits that were outlawed by the politicians who gave us mandatory arbitration.
Not all this side show. |
