Stock
15 년 전
SEC Charges Former Executives in Illegal Scheme to Enrich CEO With Perks
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2010-39
Washington, D.C., March 15, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three former senior executives and a former director of an Omaha-based database compilation company for their roles in a scheme in which the CEO funneled illegal compensation to himself in the form of perks worth millions of dollars.
The SEC alleges that Vinod Gupta, the former CEO and Chairman of infoUSA Inc. and infoGROUP Inc. (Info), fraudulently used corporate funds to pay almost $9.5 million in personal expenses to support his lavish lifestyle. He additionally caused the company to enter into $9.3 million of undisclosed business transactions between Info and other companies in which he had a personal stake.
The SEC also charged the former chairman of Info's audit committee, Vasant H. Raval, and two of the company's former chief financial officers, Rajnish K. Das and Stormy L. Dean, for enabling Gupta to carry out the scheme.
Additional Materials
SEC Complaint vs. Gupta
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21451-gupta.pdf
SEC Complaint vs. Raval
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21451-raval.pdf
SEC Complaint vs. Das and Dean
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp21451-dasanddean.pdf
SEC Order vs. Info
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2010/34-61708.pdf
"Gupta stole millions of dollars from Info shareholders by treating the company like it was his personal ATM," said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. "Other corporate officers also abused their positions of trust by looking the other way instead of standing up for investors and bringing the scheme to a halt."
Donald M. Hoerl, Director of the SEC's Denver Regional Office, added, "Officers and directors must ensure that shareholders receive accurate and complete disclosure of all compensation paid to executives. Raval, as chairman of the audit committee, neglected these duties and allowed the money to flow to Gupta unbeknownst to investors."
The SEC's complaints, filed in federal district court in Nebraska, allege that from 2003 to 2007, Gupta improperly used corporate funds for more than $3 million worth of personal jet travel for himself, family, and friends to such destinations as South Africa, Italy, and Cancun. He also used investor money to pay $2.8 million in expenses related to his yacht; $1.3 million in personal credit card expenses; and other costs associated with 28 club memberships, 20 automobiles, homes around the country, and three personal life insurance policies. The SEC also alleges that Gupta failed to inform Info's other board members of the material fact that he had purchased shares of an Info acquisition target for his own ill-gotten financial benefit.
The SEC alleges that Raval failed to respond appropriately to various red flags concerning Gupta's expenses and Info's related party transactions with Gupta's other entities. Two Info internal auditors raised concerns to Raval that Gupta was submitting requests for reimbursement of personal expenses, yet Raval failed to take meaningful action to further investigate the matter and he omitted critical facts in a report to the board concerning Gupta's expenses.
The SEC further alleges that Das and Dean allowed Gupta to support his lavish lifestyle by rubber-stamping hundreds of his expense reimbursement requests. Das and Dean approved Gupta's expense reimbursement requests despite the fact that the requests lacked sufficient explanation of business purpose and supporting documentation, even in the face of concerns raised by several Info employees. Das and Dean also signed management representation letters to Info's outside auditor falsely representing that all related party transactions with Gupta's entities had been properly recorded and disclosed in Info's financial statements.
Gupta, Raval, and Info agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the allegations against them.
Gupta agreed to pay disgorgement of $4,045,000, prejudgment interest of $1,145,400, and a penalty of $2,240,700. He consented to an order barring him from serving as an officer or director of a public company, and placing restrictions on the voting of his Info common stock. Gupta consented to a final judgment enjoining him from violations of Sections 10(b), 13(b)(5), and 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5, 13a-14, 13b2-1, 13b2-2, 14a-3, and 14a-9 and from aiding and abetting Info's violations of Exchange Act Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) and Rules 13a-1, 13a-13, and 12b-20.
Raval agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty and consented to an order barring him from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. He also consented to a final judgment enjoining him from violations of Exchange Act Sections 10(b) and 14(a) and Rules 10b-5, 14a-3, and 14a-9, and from aiding and abetting Info's violations of Exchange Act Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B) and Rules 12b-20 and 13a-1.
Info consented to the issuance of an Order Instituting Cease-and-Desist Proceedings Pursuant to Section 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Making Findings, and Imposing a Cease-and-Desist Order without admitting or denying any of the findings in the SEC's order. The Order orders Info to cease and desist from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), 13(b)(2)(B), and 14(a) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-1, 13a-13, 14a-3, and 14a-9.
The SEC's case against Das and Dean is ongoing. They are charged with violating Exchange Act Sections 10(b), 13(b)(5), and 14(a), and Rules 10b-5, 13a-14, 13b2-1, 13b2-2, 14a-3, and 14a-9, and for aiding and abetting Info's violations of Exchange Act Sections 13(a), 13(b)(2)(A), and 13(b)(2)(B), and Rules 12b-20 and 13a-1. Additionally, Das is charged with violating Exchange Act Rule 13a-13. The Commission's complaint seeks permanent injunctions, financial penalties, prejudgment interest, and an officer and director bar against both defendants.
# # #
For more information about this enforcement action, contact:
Donald M. Hoerl — Regional Director, SEC Denver Regional Office: (303) 844-1060
Julie Lutz — Associate Regional Director, SEC Denver Regional Office: (303) 844-1056
Mary S. Brady — Assistant Regional Director, SEC Denver Regional Office: (303) 844-1023
http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-39.htm
Stock
15 년 전
Infogroup Interactive Launches Twitter Campaign Management
Monday, 08 March 2010 11:25 administrator
Infogroup Interactive Launches Twitter Campaign Management
Yesmail Enterprise Clients Can Now Manage E-mail Marketing and Social Marketing Campaigns within a Single View
OMAHA, Neb., Feb 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Infogroup Interactive (an Infogroup division) (NASDAQ: IUSA), a recognized industry-leading provider of permission-based online marketing solutions, announced the release of Twitter campaign management inside of the Yesmail Enterprise technology platform.
Professional marketers now have the ability to centralize the management of Twitter campaigns and e-mail marketing campaigns within the same view which saves time and creates efficiencies in their overall campaign management. Within Yesmail's Enterprise campaign planner, marketers get a unified view of pre-scheduled and past tweets in parallel with their e-mail marketing campaigns which makes it simpler to create, distribute and manage results across online marketing channels.
Twitter Campaign Management via Yesmail Enterprise creates unique benefits in the online marketing industry including:
1. Scheduling tweets ahead of time
2. Access to a history of all tweets for 90 days
3. Coordinating shortened-link and click tracking for tweets and e-mail marketing campaigns
As of Mid 2009, Twitter had 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits and growth from 2008 to 2009 was nearly 2000% as reported by Nielsen for the Member Communities Category from June 2008 to June 2009.
"Our enterprise clients are working towards the execution and management of marketing campaigns across multiple channels in a highly-efficient manner," said John Harrison, President and General Manager of platform solutions for Yesmail. "Bringing Twitter campaign management into their workflow and providing first-to-market benefits for rapidly-evolving social media tools like Twitter, saves them time and saves them some of the tactical steps required to switch between multiple applications for marketing campaign execution and tracking."
For Yesmail Enterprise clients, the Twitter campaign management feature
empowers marketers to work ahead by
drafting and scheduling numerous tweets ahead of time and
aligning them with a series of multi-message campaigns.
"The level of personalization and interaction between marketers and their audiences has just reached a whole new level," said Harrison. "We believe that marketers who adopt this higher level of interaction with customers will be the ones who pioneer a measurable ROI between social media and e-mail into reality. As Twitter usage continues to skyrocket, marketers are driving hard to find ways to leverage their customer's preferred channels and up the personalization factor in order to both create and reaffirm brand affinity," Harrison added.
Twitter finished the year (2009) with nearly 20 million visitors to its website, up from just 2 million visitors in 2008.1
Infogroup Interactive is enabling Twitter campaign management at no-cost for all of its current Yesmail Enterprise clients. For more information visit http://www.yesmail.com/Twitter
About Infogroup Interactive
Infogroup Interactive is a digital solutions division, with industry-leading e-mail marketing solutions under the Yesmail product line and industry leading digital acquisition and media solutions under the Walter Karl product line. Built on a solid core of innovative technology, Infogroup Interactive offers a complete portfolio of digital solutions and services for marketers who need unified, market-leading digital customer acquisition and retention solutions for cohesive multi-channel lead generation programs. Infogroup Interactive empowers marketers to develop, execute and analyze comprehensive, cross-channel marketing campaigns using e-mail, mobile and SMS, social media, direct marketing media and web-based applications. Infogroup Interactive is a division of Infogroup, a leading provider of data-driven solutions for businesses and organizations worldwide--from small to large enterprise. Infogroup Interactive was founded in 2010 with corporate headquarters in Portland, Oregon and offices in Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Omaha, Pearl River, Toronto, London and Singapore.
About Infogroup. Infogroup (NASDAQ: IUSA) is the leading provider of data and interactive resources that enables targeted sales, effective marketing and insightful research solutions. Our information powers innovative tools and insight for businesses to efficiently reach current and future customers through multiple channels, including the world's most dominant and powerful Internet search engines and GPS navigation systems. Infogroup's headquarters are located at 5711 South 86th Circle, Omaha, NE 68127. For more information, call (402) 593-4500 or visit www.Infogroup.com.
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