Law dean, Pre-Paid official named to state ethics panel
2003-02-26
By Carmel Perez Snyder
The Oklahoman
House Speaker Larry Adair on Tuesday appointed the dean of the University of Tulsa Law School to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission.
Martin Belsky, who also is a member of the Pre-Paid Legal Services board, will fill the position vacated by Ethics Commission Chairman Jim Hamilton.
Belsky, a former Philadelphia prosecutor who has helped organize several conferences, including one on ethics, said his ties to Pre-Paid Legal Services will have no bearing on his ability to serve the public. The Ada- based company is under federal investigation for possible trading irregularities,
"I believe that is unrelated to my ability to be an honest, fair and objective member of the Ethics Commission," he said. "My background speaks for itself. I don't see the issue."
Pre-Paid officials were subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney for New York's southern federal judicial district for information about trades preceding a Jan. 3 announcement on Pre-Paid's sagging fourth-quarter recruiting and membership production. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission notified the company it is conducting an informal inquiry into those trades, company officials said in January.
Randy Harp, Pre-Paid's chief operating officer, earned more than $1.5 million when he sold 55,000 shares Dec. 4, a month before the company reported that its membership fell for the first time in nearly 10 years. Pre- Paid's stock dropped 25 percent on the first day of trading after the membership announcement.
According to filings with the SEC, Belsky sold 3,000 shares of Pre-Paid stock for $84,000 Dec. 9.
The company also announced Jan. 3 that Harland Stonecipher succeeded Wilburn Smith as president. At that time, Smith told Bloomberg News that company officers knew by early December the company would break its streak of 38 consecutive quarterly membership increases.
"In early December, we saw growth wasn't" sufficient to have another quarterly rise, Smith said in a Jan. 3 interview.
Belsky was one of 10 directors named in two lawsuits in Oklahoma County in which shareholders accused them of mishandling their responsibilities and wasting company funds. The lawsuits were dismissed by a federal court in Oklahoma. However, several lawsuits making similar allegations are pending in other states.
Belsky said lawsuits against companies are not unusual.
Adair, D-Stilwell, in a news release announcing the appointment, said Belsky was "eminently qualified" and would bring a "well-rounded perspective to the Commission."
Belsky graduated from Temple University and the Columbia University Law School. He had a fellowship to the Hague Academy of International Law and graduated from the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology.
He has been the Tulsa Law School dean for almost eight years. Before that, he served as the dean and professor at the Albany, N.Y., Law School.
Hamilton submitted his resignation Tuesday. The former senator and state representative said he didn't want Adair to be forced to declare the seat open after a Feb. 1 opinion by Attorney General Drew Edmondson stating that two commissioners could not be from the same congressional district.
Hamilton's district changed to the 2nd Congressional District, which already was represented by Commissioner John Luton. The change occurred after last year's reapportionment of congressional districts.
Edmondson said the Oklahoma Constitution clearly prohibits a single district from being represented by more than one member of the Ethics Commission. The incumbent commissioner whose residency changes districts is ineligible to serve the remainder of his term, according to the attorney general's opinion.
Hamilton has been known for his tough, no-nonsense approach on the Ethics Commission. He purportedly angered some lawmakers when the commission closed a loophole in campaign finance laws Feb. 1 that allowed limited-liability corporations and individuals to contribute $5,000 to candidates. Under the new rule, LLC contributions are allocated to the owners, limiting them from contributing $5,000 under their own names.
That means if an individual or family owns a certain percentage of a limited-liability corporation that contributes the maximum $5,000 to a campaign, that percentage must be considered if the individual or family makes a contribution in their name.
"I've always been pretty tough in the political arena," Hamilton said. "I wasn't any different during my time here. I'm sure there's others who have been tougher than me."
Hamilton said he was not asked to resign, but it was unusual for an appointee not to serve out his term.
"Usually, you are allowed to serve out your term regardless of what happens that would change who would hold the term in the future," he said.
He said he resigned so as not to "put the speaker on the spot."
CONTRIBUTING: Business writer Don Mecoy |
