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Technology Stocks : PairGain Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: margin_man who wrote (30418)	4/15/1999 2:10:00 PM
From: Linda Kaplan	Respond to of 36349

Headline: PairGain Employee Accused Of Taking Part In Internet Hoax ====================================================================== NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Attorney's office Thursday announced it arrested Gary Hoke, a PairGain Technologies Inc. employee, for allegedly taking part in the posting of bogus messages on the Internet that sent shares of the telecommunications-equipment maker gyrating last week. The U.S. Attorney's office said Hoke was charged with fraud but declined to elaborate. The PairGain (PAIR) hoax prompted substantial media and Wall Street attention last week, when it was discovered that someone had posted a phony message on Yahoo! Inc.'s (YHOO) message board about a supposed $1.35 billion buyout of the Tustin, Calif.-base company by an Israeli company. The message pointed to what appeared to be a news article on a World Wide Web site operated by Bloomberg LP, although the page turned out to be fake as well. The fake Bloomberg page was created using Lycos Inc.'s Internet portal service. Earlier this week, Bloomberg filed a lawsuit against five unknown people connected to the scheme. Word of the purported buyout sent Pairgrain's stock up as much as 32% at one point. The hoax wasn't discovered for several hours. The incident wasn't the first time that a bogus news story or press release has made its way onto the Internet and fooled investors. Last year, a message-board participant posted a bogus press release regarding earnings for E*Trade Group Inc. (EGRP), a popular online brokerage firm. But there are no indications of other incidents involving the use of a fake Web site designed to resemble a legitimate online news site. The incident is also being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.