Posted on 01/25/2005 4:13:20 AM PST by Liz
The one-time owners of Penthouse magazine cooked the books and defrauded investors by falsely booking up to $1 million in phantom revenue in 2003, according to charges leveled yesterday by federal regulators.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also charged that executives at the company illegally used an electronic signature of Bob Guccione Sr., the magazine's legendary founder, on government filings that he never saw.
"The inclusion of the $1 million payment under the agreement increased Penthouse's reported revenue by approximately 9 percent from $11,072,000 to $12,072,000 and changed a quarterly net loss of $167,000 to a purported net profit of $828,000," the SEC charged in a civil suit filed in New York.
The old Penthouse operation now being probed by the SEC was forced to change its corporate name to PHSL Worldwide, Inc., last October after new owners took over the day to day operations of the x-rated magazine and related properties.
Charles Samel, a former Penthouse executive now at the successor company PHSL and Jason Galanis, a former shareholder of the old company were charged with shareholder and accounting fraud and violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley certification rules, the SEC said in the civil suit — in part because SEC filings bore the signature of founder Guccione.
"In fact, Guccione had not seen or approved the filing," the SEC said.
Meanwhile, Guccione signed a separate cease and desist order after it was revealed that documents bearing his signature had actually been signed electronically.
Guccione, who is battling throat cancer, had been scrambling for years to get out of a mountain of debt and line up new backers to save his intertwined companies.
He is apparently off the hook from further charges in this incident, according to the SEC.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
"If only it were the cleavages!"
Sad. What is the world coming to when pornographers can't be trusted?
My God, if you can't trust a pornographer, who can you trust?
I don't know! First we lost the hooker with the heart of gold, then the honest Democrat, and now this.
You mean a sleazy businessman in a sleazy business has sleazy business practices???!!! Who woulda guessed?!
Are the letters in Penthouse Forum fake? Doesn't every guy have a roll with the entire cheerleading squad when his car breaks down and their bus comes by and they offer him a ride?
Yeah, that's downright despicable, making readers think every guy has a roll with the entire cheerleading squad when his car breaks down and their bus comes by and they offer him a ride.
That happened to me. No, not really.
hey, the same thing happened to me !
This proves we are really going to hell in a handbasket.
I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked (/end Claude Rains impersonation).
I thought that you and the girl's soccer team spent the weekend at your parents house when your parents were out of town!
There, there..... buck up. So they cooked the books, airbushed the cleavages, and faked the letters.........it's not the end the world.
I thought it was the girl's gymnastics team in your case.
This is an Atrocity!
What a coincidence....maybe you two could write a book together?
(Sniffle) Geez, I feel so bad that the post burst your little dream bubble (sob)
I'll never trust anyone again.
Yes. And the court filing in this case begins "I can't believe it happened to me..."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.