Take-Two Cleared For Lawsuit Against Former Executives - 2010 April 1

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps1-news/767.html

Where there's big money, there's crime. Or alleged crime. Or
whatever. It just makes me want to take a shower.

Take-Two may have shown solid results in their latest financial
report, but it still wants to go after four former executives who helped
lead the company through the past decade. According to a recent Reuters
report, New York federal judge Laura Taylor Swain has given the
green light for the publisher to sue its former leaders "for securities
fraud related to backdating stock options." The ruling was that the
"company specifically identified the alleged improperly backdated option
grants and sufficiently alleged the defendants had an intent to deceive
or defraud." Named in the suit: ex-Take-Two CFOs Larry Muller and
James David, and former CEOs Kelly Sumner and Ryan Brant. Back in
February 2007, Brant issued a guilty plea in response to first-degree
felony charges of "falsifying business records" during the company's
stock-option backdating scandal. The SEC found that between the years
1997 to 2003, Brant had given himself (and other employees) stock
options, and then changed the records concerning when the options were
granted. Why? For more profit, of course.

In August of 2007, he decided to broker a deal that would allow him
to avoid jail; he paid $6.3 million to settle the SEC's civil suit
against him and another $1 million to New York state and local
authorities. And now, he's back in the limelight for all the wrong
reasons, and three former executives are coming along with him. Guess
it's just another example of money corrupting.

4/1/2010 9:08:59 PM John Shepard