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Archive for the 'Legal woes' Category

The auction rate blues…

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Judging by the news this morning about new subpoenas going out over auction rate securities, this is one more headache for Wall Street that’s likely to get worse. So I decided to take a look at how companies are talking about this mess in their recent filings. The short answer is a lot more than [...]

Trying to slip through the cracks at Wachovia…

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Of all the news that came out about Wachovia (WB) yesterday — the unexpected loss, the $7 billion in new capital, and the dramatic cut in the dividend — there were several new disclosures, primarily related to legal troubles — in the 8-K they filed yesterday that went largely unnoticed. We’ll take them in order:

Wachovia [...]

Pumping penny stocks in the name of acting…

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Being an aspiring actress is no doubt hard work and sometimes you wind up doing stuff you’re less than proud of for the paycheck. Or the clip. Yesterday, the SEC announced that it was suspending trading in three companies: NeoTactix (NCTX), Graystone Park Enterprises (GPKE), and Younger America (YNGR). The suspensions were not for securities [...]

Reading between the lines at American Apparel…

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Retailer American Apparel (APP), which is usually described as being edgy and which since going public via a special purpose acquisition company in mid-December has fallen sharply, had more than a few sharp edges in the 10K it filed on Monday.
Controversial CEO Dov Charney is currently dealing with one lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and wrongful [...]

An ode to the stock option scandal…

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Remember the good old days before we taxpayers found ourselves bailing out the likes of Bear Stearns, back when the most exciting story on the business page was stock option backdating? Sure, the backdating scandal was disturbing, revealing widespread sneakiness in the service of greed, and it caused a bunch of earnings restatements. But no [...]