{"id":433732,"date":"2010-03-16T10:30:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.footnoted.org\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2010-03-16T10:30:56","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:30:56","slug":"the-perks-that-ate-infogroup-%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/433732","title":{"rendered":"The perks that ate infoGROUP \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One key principle here at footnoted is that the small stuff does matter. Look no further than Vinod Gupta, who, yesterday evening, became the Securities and Exchange Commission’s poster child for perks run amok.<\/p>\n

Of course, in Gupta’s case, the little stuff turned out not to be so little, as the SEC tells it<\/a>. We’ll spoil the ending: Gupta, infoGroup Inc.’s (IUSA) former chairman and CEO, was formally accused yesterday of fraudulently using nearly $9.5 million in corporate funds “to support his lavish lifestyle,” while hiding another $9.3 million of transactions with companies that he owned at least in part. Two other former executives and a former director of the Omaha-based database and mailing-list vendor were also charged in the case.<\/p>\n

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Gupta agreed to pay $7.4 million in penalties, interest and disgorgement, and will be banned from serving as a corporate director or officer for life. An attorney for Gupta didn’t return a call seeking comment.<\/p>\n

If you’re feeling a little d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, loyal readers, there’s a reason: Gupta’s a frequent flyer here at footnoted — he appeared in August 2008<\/a> when the company agreed to pay him $10 million to go away while requiring him to repay $9 million. Then, last year, Gupta and infoGROUP made the 2009 short list for footnoted’s worst footnote of the year contest<\/a> after the company said that Gupta’s personal use of the company yacht in 2008 totaled more than $870,000 — not the zero previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that turns out to have been the tip of the iceberg, by the SEC’s account. Indeed, the agency’s allegations read like a primer on proxy-filing red flags:<\/p>\n

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“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.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Granted, those totals span 2003 to 2007, but they’re still eye-opening.<\/p>\n

The SEC argues that Gupta had plenty of assistance when it came to shielding the largess from prying eyes. Former director Vasant H. Raval, a Creighton University accounting professor<\/a> who once headed infoGroup’s audit committee, was accused of having omitted “critical facts in a report to the board” about the matter, and of failing to “respond appropriately to various red flags,” even after two internal auditors questioned whether Gupta was seeking reimbursement for personal spending. He has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle the charges against him, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, and will also be banned from serving as a public-company officer or director for five years, the SEC said. His attorney didn’t return a call seeking comment. (A spokeswoman for infoGROUP declined to comment.)<\/p>\n

Two former infoGROUP CFOs are also accused of signing off on phony expenses without “sufficient explanation of business purpose.” Neither former CFO has settled as yet. Attorneys for Gupta and former CFO Rajnish K. Das didn’t return calls seeking comment. David Zisser, who represents ex-CFO Stormy Dean, called the SEC “wrong on both the law and the facts.”<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of issues about what constitutes a perk and what constitutes a related-party transaction,” Zisser said. “There was a lot of information regarding the things supposedly hidden that shows they weren’t hidden at all.”<\/p>\n

However things shake out in court, it looks like the curtain is falling on this chapter of the infoGROUP’s perks saga: Last week, Gupta resigned<\/a> from the board, and the company announced<\/a> it would be taken private by CCMP Capital. Once private, they can throw around whatever perks they might want, and we aren’t likely to find out (at least, until CCMP takes the company public again).<\/p>\n

In the meantime, when you hear that even lavish perks are a small price to keep a good executive, think back to the long, strange tale of Vinod Gupta, infoGROUP and the corporate yacht that turned out to be more of a pleasure boat than the filings initially let on.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it turns out, the little things aren’t. And if you don’t take a good hard look, you might find out too late.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One key principle here at footnoted is that the small stuff does matter. Look no further than Vinod Gupta, who, yesterday evening, became the Securities and Exchange Commission’s poster child for perks run amok. Of course, in Gupta’s case, the little stuff turned out not to be so little, as the SEC tells it. We’ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}