Ticker has changed to IMCLE.
E - Delinquent in required filings.
Because of Waksal, its former CEO.
ImClone says SEC probing delay in 2002 report
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- ImClone Systems Inc. said today the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an inquiry into the issues that have delayed the company's reporting of its 2002 performance and its plans to restate 2001 results.
ImClone made the disclosure as it delayed again its target for reporting the results and restatement, saying it won't be able to complete its financial statements by its self-imposed deadline of April 15.
Last week, ImClone said it was postponing the announcement of financial results for the fourth quarter and 2002 and had to restate 2001 earnings because its former president and chief executive, Sam Waksal, failed to pay taxes on stock options and warrants he exercised. Employers are liable for taxes on options and warrants if their employees fail to pay them.
ImClone had said it would have the results by April 15 but now says it has failed to complete an internal review necessary to complete its financial statements. ImClone reiterated Waksal may have failed to pay $60 million in taxes, exclusive of penalties and interest.
ImClone said it was cooperating with the SEC request for documents and information. It didn't give a new date for when it might release its financial reports.
The company has also said it may have to restate financial results beyond 2001, when it posted a loss of $102.2 million, or $1.47 a share, on revenues of $33.2 million.
Waksal has pleaded guilty to several counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy stemming from an insider trading scandal in which he attempted to dump ImClone stock and advised family members to do the same after he learned that the company would receive bad news from regulators.
In December 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration informed ImClone that it would not accept its application for the cancer drug Erbitux. The shares, then trading at about $55 each, went into a tailspin.
In trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, ImClone shares fell 11 cents to close Wednesday at $17.57.
Waksal has pleaded guilty to failing to pay sales taxes on several expensive pieces of art.
He resigned from ImClone in May 2002, and was succeeded by his brother, Harlan.
chron.com
ImClone Founder To Pay The Price
NEW YORK, March 11, 2003
ImClone founder Sam Waksal did not have any immediate comment on the settlement. (AP)
Last October, Waksal admitted tipping his daughter, Aliza, to dump company stock just before the FDA report. His plea covered securities fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.
Martha Stewart sold nearly 4,000 ImClone shares the day before the FDA declined to review the ImClone drug Erbitux. (CBS)
Dig Deeper
• Interactive:
Where The Dust Settles
See the effect of the ImClone scandal on the Imclone and Martha Stewart stock prices.
(CBS) ImClone Systems founder Samuel Waksal has agreed to an $800,000 fine and a permanent ban on serving as head of any public company, government regulators said Tuesday.
The agreement is a partial settlement of civil charges filed against Waksal by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the ImClone insider-trading scandal, the SEC said.
Waksal did not have any immediate comment on the settlement, said his spokesman, Scott Tagliarino.
The SEC claims Waksal was tipped off before the government announced a disappointing decision on ImClone's cancer drug Erbitux, and tried to sell 80,000 shares of the company.
Last October, Waksal admitted tipping his daughter, Aliza, to dump company stock just before the FDA report. His plea covered securities fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury.
Waksal, 55, will be sentenced in May on criminal fraud charges. He admitted last week to conspiring with a Manhattan art dealer to dodge $1.2 million in sales tax on $15 million in paintings he bought in 2000 and 2001.
At a hearing in federal court Monday, Waksal said he and the dealer used invoices that made it appear the paintings were destined for New Jersey. They were all eventually shipped to his apartment in Manhattan.
"This really wasn't about art. It was about greed," U.S. Attorney James Comey said. "Mr. Waksal could well afford to pay the taxes on these paintings."
The hearing represented a critical point in the government's pursuit of criminal charges against Waksal. Comey said prosecutors have now "wrapped it up" with Waksal.
Last year, former Tyco International Ltd. CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski was indicted on charges of evading New York sales taxes on $13 million in art, including works by Renoir and Monet. Kozlowski has pleaded innocent.
Waksal's pleas Monday covered conspiracy and wire fraud. At a hearing, Waksal's attorney said Waksal has talked to the government about other people's stock trades — but stressed he did not mean Martha Stewart, a Waksal friend whose sale of ImClone stock is under investigation.
Stewart, the home decorating maven, sold nearly 4,000 ImClone shares on Dec. 27, 2001, the day before the FDA declined to review the ImClone drug Erbitux. She has maintained she had a standing order to sell the stock if it dropped below $60.
cbsnews.com |
