Posted on 04/04/2008 4:13:20 PM PDT by HAL9000
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Database provider InfoUSA Inc. said Friday it received a Nasdaq delisting notice earlier this week because it still hasn't filed its annual report.InfoUSA said in a statement it expected the notice that trading of its shares could be suspended, but the Omaha company plans to appeal, which would delay any action by the Nasdaq Stock Market.
InfoUSA said last month its annual report would be delayed because of an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a shareholder lawsuit that questions the company's spending.
The annual report was due March 17. Investment manager Cardinal Value Equity Partners and hedge fund Dolphin Limited Partnership filed the shareholder lawsuit last year.
The SEC has asked InfoUSA to produce spending-related documents and documentation related to some trading in the company's securities.
InfoUSA officials did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.
Its shares fell 13 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $5.23 Friday.
InfoUSA formed a special board committee of five directors in December to respond to the SEC investigation and shareholder lawsuit, which alleges that the company misspent millions, some of it on former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
The shareholder lawsuit questions why InfoUSA founder Vin Gupta used private corporate jets to fly the Clintons on business, personal and campaign trips, why Gupta gave Bill Clinton a $3.3 million consulting contract and why the company paid for extravagant luxuries Gupta enjoyed.
According to the lawsuit, InfoUSA has spent nearly $900,000 since 2001 flying the Clintons to domestic and international locations and political events.
Gupta has been a major donor to Democrats and gave at least $1 million to Bill Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas. Gupta also took part in a June fundraiser for Sen. Clinton in Manhattan.
A spokesman for Sen. Clinton said last May that all the flights connected to InfoUSA were reimbursed and disclosed in accordance with Federal Election Commission and Senate ethics rules.
The investment managers also say InfoUSA paid for use of a jet plane, the 80-foot yacht American Princess, condos in Hawaii and California and a University of Nebraska-Lincoln stadium box.
In the past, Gupta and InfoUSA have said the jet, condos, stadium box and yacht are for entertaining clients.
InfoUSA Inc.: http://www.Infousa.com
Dolphin's anti-InfoUSA site: http://www.iusaccountability.com
And the beat goes on ...
“A spokesman for Sen. Clinton said last May that all the flights connected to InfoUSA were reimbursed and disclosed in accordance with Federal Election Commission and Senate ethics rules.”
Hmmm. I find this very hard to believe, that the Clinton’s ACTUALLY REIMBURSED the company. I see weasel words “in accordance with Federal Election Commission and Senate ethics rules”. I suspect those rules let the Clintons be “gifted” at a high actual cost of a private jet, and permit them to repay at the equivalent of the cost of, i.e., a first-class commercial seat.
It took me only a few minutes to confirm my suspicions exactly.
From the Washington Post:
Largess To Clintons Lands CEO In Lawsuit
Case Is a Window On Couple’s Ties
By Matthew Mosk and John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 26, 2007
For the past four years, the Clintons have jetted around on Vinod Gupta’s corporate plane, to Switzerland, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico — $900,000 worth of travel. The former president secured a $3.3 million consulting deal with Gupta’s technology firm. His presidential library got a six-figure gift, too.
Gupta’s generosity toward the Clintons has proved so controversial within his firm — a major provider of database-processing services — that it prompted a shareholder lawsuit complaining that hiring the former president was a “waste of corporate assets.”
.... In addition, it suggests the degree to which Hillary Clinton’s political career is also benefiting from those connections.
...
The jet travel for the Clintons was charged to the company as “business development” expenses, the lawsuit said. The company jet took them to vacation spots, whisked the former president to an international conference in Geneva and to a commemorative speech in Oklahoma City, and shuttled Hillary Clinton to a campaign fundraiser in New Mexico.
The Clintons complied at the time with federal law by reimbursing Gupta for a portion of the costs for the flights Hillary Clinton took to political and other events. The Clintons do not have to reimburse InfoUSA for any of Bill Clinton’s travel, and they had to pay only the equivalent of first-class airfare for her travel, a fraction of the actual cost.
.........
With their net worth, it’s surprising that the Clinton Foundations doesn’t have a timeshare arrangement on a jet. It would have saved the InfoUSA shareholders millions.
Grifters to the grave...
Just one more idiot who hasn't learned any lessons from the hundreds of "associates of the Clintons" who's lives are just discarded wrecks along the national highway named quid pro quo.
I always knew the Clintons were pigs - I guess now we know who provided the mud.
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