Gee..I robbed a bank 5 years ago. What's with all this scrutiny now.
Backdating is a form of shareholder fraud. The SEC is
on track showing which companies exhibited probity and those that didn't.
Gee..I wish I could have been part of the cabals that snickered as they snookered their shareholders.
Rethink it this way... Gee, I withdrew $1000 from MY bank account five years ago... and now the government says that there is a retroactive $500 withdrawal limit that was passed two years ago. What's with all this scrutiny now?
This was totally legal at the time. In fact, it still is.
What has changed now is that the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) were changed a couple of years ago to require companies to account for this in both expense and Capital accounts at the time of the option grant... instead of later, when and IF the option is exercised, as had been done for years. The problem is they made the change in GAAP retroactive for 5 years or so before they changed the rules. If this were a law, it would be unconstitutional as an ex post facto law.
"Gee..I wish I could have been part of the cabals that snickered as they snookered their shareholders."
Please tell me how giving an incentive option to an employee allowing him to buy a stock, not on the open market but rather from the company, at some vested future date in anyway adversely impacts the current stockholders?