denying wrongdoing, the SEC said. The production of altered documents cited in the
order was the third instance in 8 years, the SEC said.
Source:
incorrect price information on more than 1,000 stocks and other securities October 27.
The error resulted in some online sites showing closing prices for some securities that
were actually based on trades that had occurred in electronic trading after markets had
closed. The problem started at 7:27 p.m. October 27 when NYSE's Arca platform sent
incorrectly coded share price information. An e-mail sent to traders on October 28 said
the problem involved prices from aftermarket trades October 28 that were incorrectly
coded as if they had happened during regular trading that day. The e-mail said the mix-
up affected the closing price in some shares that trade on the NYSE as well as its Arca
platform. The error affected some stocks, exchange-traded funds, and mutual funds that
started with the letters A though T. Symbols starting with U through Z were not
affected. A NYSE spokesman said more than 1,000 ticker symbols were affected. He
said the mix-up was under investigation.
Source:
convicted of fraud October 28. He was found guilty by a federal jury of seven crimes
relating to a 7-year accounting fraud conspiracy at Beazer, according to a news release
from the U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina. The
charges arise from an ongoing government investigation involving Beazer and its
employees that began in March 2007. Beazer accepted responsibility for the charges
and, in a deferred prosecution agreement, agreed to pay restitution of $50 million.The
chief accounting officer was convicted of directing an accounting fraud conspiracy to
falsify reported profits at Beazer by lying to Beazer's auditors, fraudulently achieving
earnings targets, falsifying Beazer's books and records, and deceiving the public by
boosting and lowering earnings. According to the evidence at trial, he executed the
conspiracy in two ways: Between 2005 and 2006, he entered into a hidden oral side
agreement with another company through one of its employees, which was designed to
allow Beazer to obtain cash and to improperly report revenue from purported "sales" of
model homes. Between 2000 and 2007, he directed a scheme to commit securities fraud
and create false books and records at Beazer by practicing "cookie jar accounting,"
which allowed the accounting officer and others to falsely report profits in Beazer's
publicly reported financial statements. He was convicted of conspiracy to: commit
securities fraud; make false and misleading statements to auditors and accountants;
circumvent Beazer's internal accounting controls; falsify the books, records, and
accounts. He was also convicted of engaging in a wire fraud conspiracy, and securities
fraud upon Beazer investors in connection with the sale of Beazer's common stock. The
jury also convicted him of two charges of obstruction of a federal grand jury
investigation and a charge of destroying documents. Finally, the jury convicted the man