SiliconBeat

The Securities and Exchange Commission said today it has proposed revisions to some of its rules related to proxy disclosures that the Commission says would include information about:

• The relationship of a company’s overall compensation policies to risk.
• The qualifications of directors, executive officers and nominees.
• Company leadership structure.
• Potential conflicts of interests of compensation consultants.

The proposals are also intended to Read the rest of this entry »

An employee of Restoration Hardware must appear before the SEC to give sworn testimony in its investigation into possible insider trading involving her husband, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled today.

In May, Lena Yan, Read the rest of this entry »

The Securities and Exchange Commission said today it has filed an action to force Oakland resident Lena Yan, an analyst in the finance department at Restoration Hardware, to provide sworn testimony in its investigation into possible insider trading involving her husband in Restoration Hardware stock in November 2007 shortly before news of its acquisition became public.

According to a filing the SEC made today, Yan’s husband, Read the rest of this entry »

In our e-mail today was the text of a posting by the director of publications at the RiskMetrics Group, Ted Allen. (It was forwarded to us by Gary Lutin at The Shareholder Forum, which is currently hosting an ongoing forum on “Say on Pay” and acts as a clearinghouse of information on the topic. Allen’s post is titled “A ‘New Opening’ for Investors,” referring to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Read the rest of this entry »

A day after voting themselves $20,000 in cash for “past services” and a day before their company filed for bankruptcy, three directors of Tvia, a fabless — and profitless — Santa Clara company focused on chips for digital displays, called it quits Tuesday, according to a filing Thursday.

Among those resigning was Read the rest of this entry »

When Ciriaco “Eric” Rivor of Millbrae learned in mid-2007 that his company, the Corte Medera-based home furnishing retailer Restoration Hardware, was about to be acquired by a private equity firm at a “substantial premium”, the former finance vice president passed the confidential, non-public information to friends Emmanuel Axiaq of San Carlos, Calif., and Steven Lusardi of San Jose, according to allegations leveled by the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday. Rivor also told Emmanuel Axiaq to pass the information to his father, Francis Axiaq of Millbrae, according to the SEC complaint.

That last bit of advice was probably especially unwise, in retrospect. Read the rest of this entry »

Three former outside directors at Mercury Interactive settled charges brought against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a release the SEC posted Wednesday.

Igal Kohavi, Yair Shamir, and Giora Yaron — who served on the board of directors of the company from 1997 through 2005, and who served on its compensation and audit committees from at least 1997 to 2002 — were charged by the SEC with Read the rest of this entry »

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the promotion of Michael Dicke to Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the agency’s San Francisco Regional Office.  Dicke will lead a large staff of attorneys, accountants and other professionals who investigate and litigate federal securities law violations in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska, according to a press release put out by the SEC.

Dicke, 44, joined the SEC in 1996 as a staff attorney after five years in private practice.  Since then, he has Read the rest of this entry »

Three former executives with Embarcadero Technologies were charged civily Tuesday in federal district court in San Francisco with fraudulently backdating stock option grants and reporting false financial information to shareholders, according to a release put out Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC alleges that Embarcadero “routinely provided valuable Read the rest of this entry »

Con-Way, the San Mateo-based trucking firm, settled a dispute with the SEC Wednesday regarding  alleged  violations  of  the  Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a regulatory filing. The dispute arose from the conduct of Emery Transnational, a Philippines-based joint venture that Con-Way later sold to UPS. In 2003, Con-way  became aware that the division may have made certain payments in violation of the act and promptly notified the SEC.

Con-way says that the SEC recognized its co-operation in the investigation in its order resolving the matter, and that it “acknowledged that Con-Way has taken remedial actions and enhanced its compliance program.