Tell Ray DIRKs that he better let his customers sell: "Judge Finds Ex-Brokerage Chief Manipulated Shopping.com Stock
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge found that a former brokerage-firm
president, Cery B. Perle, manipulated the stock of one of his firm's clients,
Shopping.com, an Internet retailer.
The ruling by Judge Dickran Tevrizian came in
response to a suit filed by the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission against Mr. Perle,
who was president and part owner of the now-defunct Irvine, Calif.,
brokerage firm Waldron & Co. The judge issued an injunction against Mr.
Perle and imposed $110,000 in penalties.
Mr. Perle Thursday denied any wrongdoing. He said he hadn't had
adequate funds to defend himself against the SEC charges and plans to
appeal the judge's decision.
Waldron served as underwriter for Shopping.com when the Corona del
Mar, Calif., company made its initial public offering in November 1997. In
a suit filed in September in Los Angeles federal court against Mr. Perle
and Waldron, the SEC contended that the defendants manipulated the
price of Shopping.com shares from their initial level of $9 a share to more
than $32.
Thursday, SEC attorney Clifford Hyatt said the investigation is continuing.
Earlier this year, Shopping.com was purchased by Compaq Computer
Corp. for $220 million." |
