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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11127)	2/20/2003 6:48:24 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Did little Jonathan Lebed do a XDSL spam today? What kind of company hires a Jonathan Lebed as IR. Ha ha ha A crummy one

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11127)	2/20/2003 7:25:57 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Merrill Agrees to Pay $80 Mln to Settle Enron Probe (Update2) By Stephen Cohen New York, Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest securities firm by capital, agreed to pay $80 million to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into two transactions with bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. The payment, the first by a securities firm to settle Enron- related probes, will end the SEC's investigation into Merrill's $7 million investment in three barges moored off the Nigerian coast. The settlement, in which Merrill didn't admit or deny wrongdoing, also ends the SEC's inquiry into several energy trades Merrill made with Enron in 1999. ``The SEC is saying Merrill was a willing participant in Enron's scheme to mislead the investing public,'' said Chris Bebel, a former SEC attorney and federal prosecutor now with Shepherd Smith & Bebel in Houston. ``This is a very substantial fine for an act that was non-recurring. This sets the bar quite high for the other firms that were more involved with Enron.'' In the case of the Nigerian barges, former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow was accused of pressuring Merrill to buy the barges so Enron could record $12 million in earnings. Enron financed the rest of the $28 million purchase with a loan to Merrill, according to a criminal complaint filed against Fastow. At the time of the transaction, a Merrill investment banker, Jim Brown, voiced concern about the transactions and wrote that the bank might suffer ``reputational risk i.e. aid/abet Enron income stmt manipulation,'' according to notes released at Senate hearings on the transaction in July. `Sham Transaction' ``The SEC was arguing that it was a sham transaction, that risk of loss was never effectively transferred to Merrill as a result of the sale,'' Bebel said. ``Merrill did this in order to endear itself to Enron executives so it might increase its prospects of investment banking business in the future.'' Merrill spokesman Mark Herr said the firm settled because, ``we're putting this behind us.'' SEC spokeswoman Christi Harlan declined to comment. In October, Merrill spokesman Tim Cobb said the company's investment in the barges was ``fully at risk'' and that the company ``did not receive any guarantee that Enron or any other entity would purchase our investment.'' Merrill ``never knowingly assisted Enron in falsifying its financial results,'' said Cobb at the time. Merrill is a passive, minority investor in Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11127)	2/20/2003 10:49:52 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Pre-Paid Legal Salesman Tucci Sued for Fraud, N.Y. Post Says By James Kraus New York, Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Dean Tucci, the top salesman at Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc., was sued for fraud in 1999 by Illinois over businesses he ran called Argus Dental Plans and Argus Health plans, the New York Post reported, citing the suit. The suit, which is still pending, alleges Tucci's companies took money from potential customers' bank accounts while they were supposed to be in a free trial period and then refused to reimburse the funds, the newspaper reported. The state of Washington's insurance commission also barred him in 1999 from handling business in that state, the Post said. Pre-Paid Legal is being investigated by three government agencies for its business practices and relationship with the hedge fund Gotham Partners, the paper added. Pre-Paid, which has about 1.4 million members who pay about $21 a month for insurance, said last month that it was the object of an informal SEC investigation had and received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Pre-Paid didn't return calls requesting information about Tucci and didn't put the Post in contact with Tucci, the paper said. (NYP 2-20 Online) For the Web site of the New York Post, see {NYPT }.