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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Petriv who wrote (54432)	4/11/2000 5:18:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 122087

NASD brushes aside demand for chairman's resignation By Elizabeth Smith NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), which owns the Nasdaq stock market, on Tuesday brushed aside a demand by one of its board members that its chairman, Frank Zarb, resign because of his involvement in a New Jersey fraud case. Earlier, Alan Davidson, president of the Independent Broker-Dealer Association, called on the chairman to step down because of a civil lawsuit in which a former professional football player accused Zarb of misleading him when he was being recruited by the firm that Zarb headed at the time. NASD executives shot back, saying Davidson was using the New Jersey case in an attempt derail plans to restructure the Nasdaq through a $1.3 billion private placement. Davidson in early March said he would oppose the private placement unless the NASD postponed a vote on the issue. ``It's rubbish,' a Nasdaq spokesman said. ``This is a transparent and desperate attempt to serve his own purposes, and no serious person who is familiar with the facts would be misled by it.' Davidson, president of Zeus Securities in Smithtown, N.Y., did return a call seeking comment. The NASD in March ignored Davidson's request and proceeded to mail voting materials to all 5,500 NASD broker-dealer firms. At a meeting on Friday in Washington, NASD will tally the votes, hoping to move forward with Nasdaq spin-off. If a majority of NASD firms participating in the vote endorse the spin-off, the NASD will act on the first phase of the two-step private-placement process. That involves selling some 49 percent of the Nasdaq, an electronic stock market created by the NASD in 1971. Shares in the Nasdaq, a for-profit wholly owned subsidiary, will be offered to NASD membership firms and to the most highly capitalized companies whose shares are listed on the Nasdaq. Davidson's comments about the NASD chairman refer to a lawsuit filed against Zarb in 1997 by former New York Giants wide-receiver Phil McConkey. McConkey in his suit accused Zarb of fraud and lying to him about an upcoming merger of Alexander & Alexander, an insurance brokerage firm that Zarb headed at the time. McConkey said he accepted a job offer in 1996 from Alexander & Alexander after being assured by Zarb that the company would not be sold. McConkey later lost his job after insurance firm Aeon acquired Alexander & Alexander, McConkey's lawyer said. McConkey's lawyer, Neil Mullin, said he had first named Zarb as a defendant but later dismissed him as a named party in the suit. Even so, the case proceeded against Aeon on the basis of Zarb's actions, Mullin said. A jury on Dec. 16 ruled in McConkey's favor, awarding him $5 million in punitive damages, $2 million for emotional distress and $3 million in lost wages, Mullin said. Mullin said Aeon filed a post-ruling motion in the case to reduce the amount the jury had awarded. The judge has yet to rule on that motion, he said. 16:37 04-11-00