SEC Subpoenas MarketWatch Execs' Records
Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Apr. 07, 2004
NEW YORK - The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed the personal stock-trading records of four executives at MarketWatch.com Inc., as part of the probe into former commentator Thom Calandra, who resigned in January, the company said.
The subpoenas were sent Tuesday to MarketWatch Chief Executive Larry Kramer, editor-and-chief David Callaway, Chief Technology Officer Jame Thingelstad, and Executive Vice President Bill Bishop.
The San Francisco-based financial news and information provider believes the subpoenas were made as part of the SEC's investigation into Calandra, MarketWatch.com co-founder and former chief commentator, MarketWatch spokesman Dan Silmore said Monday.
Calandra stepped down in January amid internal and SEC inquiries into his trading activities.
The SEC subpoenas, which were reported Tuesday by MarketWatch's news service, CBS MarketWatch, asked for the executives' trading records between March 2003 - the date Calandra began writing the stock-picking newsletter Calandra Report - and December 2003.
"We do not know why the SEC selected these individuals," Doug Appleton, MarketWatch's general counsel, said.
"We can only surmise that it's because each either had management supervision of Thom Calandra or The Calandra Report, or had potential access to The Calandra Reports prior to their publication."
The company has no information that any of the executives ever traded on nonpublic information communicated by Calandra, he said.
David Bayless, outside counsel for MarketWatch.com, said the subpoenas were "a natural, expected extension" of the SEC's investigation into Calandra's trading activities.
"In these types of inquiries, we routinely anticipate that the SEC will seek information from those colleagues who had regular contact with the individual being investigated," he said.
MarketWatch disclosed in its annual report filed last week that it received a subpoena from the SEC regarding Calandra's trading activities. The company said it was cooperating fully with the investigation.
A representative for the SEC declined to comment. |
