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Technology Stocks : AremisSoft Corporation (AREM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: benchpress550 who wrote (670)	3/25/2002 8:25:36 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 683

AremisSoft Ex-Chairman Poyiadjis Indicted for Fraud. New York, March 25 (Bloomberg) -- AremisSoft Corp.'s former chairman and co-chief executive, Roys Poyiadjis, has been indicted for fraud in a scheme that cost investors at least $300 million,authorities said. Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment last month against Poyiadjis, a British citizen now living in Cyprus, though they didn't publicly announce it. The charge came to light in a case filed Friday in which prosecutors say they are seeking to seize $175 million in illicit profits diverted to two overseas banks by Poyiadjis and co-CEO Lycourgos Kyprianou. AremisSoft filed for bankruptcy on March 15. The maker of business-management software has said it can't substantiate $90 million in revenue booked by its Emerging Markets Group. In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Poyiadjis and Kyprianou with making more than $300 million in secret stock sales while AremisSoft was reporting inflated revenue. ``While the public was being misled about the true nature of AremisSoft and its revenues, Poyiadjis and Kyprianou capitalized on that fraud by secretly selling millions of AremisSoft shares through nominee corporations and offshore accounts,'' prosecutors said in a civil forfeiture complaint. U.S. prosecutors are seeking to seize funds held at Fleming Bank and Standard Bank, both in the Isle of Man. Inflated Revenue A spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based AremisSoft didn't have an immediate comment. Shares in the company, which in early 2001 was worth more than $1 billion, rose one cent to 51 cents in afternoon trading. The company's stock is now worth $20 million, though under a proposed reorganization, all shares will be cancelled, according to a filing with the SEC. The SEC says Poyiadjis made about $175 million in illegal profits from trading company stock in 2000, and Kyprianou made at least $125 million. The two sold AremisSoft stock through offshore entities after the company inflated its revenue, which drove up the stock price, prosecutors said. Prosecutors say AremisSoft inflated revenue by ``grossly'' overstating the value of its contracts, or even making them up, and by exaggerating the size of several acquisitions. In 1999, for instance, the company, then based in Westmont, New Jersey, announced that it obtained a $37.5 million health computer contract with the National Health Insurance Fund of Bulgaria, authorities said. The Bulgarian government said last year that the contract's value was actually $3.9 million. Poyiadjis, who once lived in New York, hasn't responded to the indictment, according to court records. There's no indication in records that Kyprianou has been similarly charged. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney James Comey didn't have an immediate comment. In the forfeiture case, prosecutors say they've traced $175 million of the ``hundreds of millions'' that Poyiadjis and Kyprianou ``stole'' to four accounts at the two banks. Prosecutors want U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa to authorize seizure of the money. --David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York at (212) 732- 9245, or at dglovin@bloomberg.net, through the New York newsroom (212) 893-3665. Editor: Pinsley Story illustration: For graph of AremisSoft stock, type {AREM US <Equity> GPO <GO>} AREM US <Equity> CN NI Codes NI IBS NI FRAUD NI UK NI CRIME NI JUS NI INDIA NI SEC NI SCR NI LAW NI MN NI US NI CYPRUS NI NYC NI NJ