Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 25
BUSINESS A25
Tuesday 15 September 2015
Ukrainian firm, CEO paying $30M to settle SEC charges
MARCY GORDON The Securities and Ex- The SEC last month brought U.S. authorities said it was wire services, which put out
AP Business Writer change Commission an- civil charges against Jas- the biggest scheme of earnings announcements
WASHINGTON (AP) — A nounced the settlement pen, Supranonok and 32 its kind ever prosecuted, and other press releases for
Ukrainian firm and its CEO Monday with Jaspen other people and compa- and one that pointed to a host of corporations.
are paying $30 million Capital Partners and CEO nies in the U.S. and Europe, an alarming vulnerability Separately, nine of the oth-
to settle U.S. regulators’ Andriy Supranonok, who accusing them of raking in in the financial system in er people, in the U.S. and
charges they were part agreed to make restitu- $100 million over five years the age of increasingly so- Ukraine, were indicted on
of an international web of tion for their allegedly ill- by stealing looks at corpo- phisticated cybercrime. criminal charges — includ-
hackers and traders that gotten gains. They neither rate press releases before In a 21st-century twist on ing securities fraud, com-
made $100 million by get- acknowledged nor denied they were made public insider trading, the hack- puter fraud and conspiracy
ting advance peeks at wrongdoing but did agree and then trading on that ers allegedly broke into — by federal prosecutors in
sensitive corporate news to refrain from future viola- information ahead of the the computers of some of New Jersey and Brooklyn,
releases. tions of the securities laws. pack. the largestbusiness news- New York. q
China issues blueprint on overhauling bloated state industry
JOE McDONALD but promises a “decisive mote “mixed ownership,” At a news conference down.
AP Business Writer Underperforming assets will
BEIJING (AP) — China’s outcome” by 2020. the party term for allow- Monday, the deputy head be sold and “the money will
Communist Party issued a be used by companies that
long-awaited blueprint for Rather than reducing the ing outside investors to buy of the Cabinet body that need it more,” said Zhang
overhauling bloated state Xiwu, deputy chairman of
industries while retaining A man checks his mobile phone as he walks by buildings of China’s state-owned companies, the State-Owned Assets
the party’s dominance in China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), left, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. Supervision and Administra-
the economy. (Sinopec), in Beijing Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. China’s Communist Party has issued a long- tion Commission.
The government of Presi- awaited blueprint for overhauling bloated state industries that retains the party’s dominance in Despite three decades of
dent Xi Jinping is under the economy. market-oriented reform,
pressure to reverse an most of China’s industries
economic slowdown and (AP Photo/Andy Wong) are dominated or entirely
reduce reliance on trade controlled by state compa-
and investment to drive party’s role, the plan says stakes in state companies, oversees China’s big- nies. That includes banking,
growth. Communist lead- Beijing will “strengthen but gives no indication gest state enterprises said oil and gas, insurance, air
ers have promised to give party leadership” of state whether they would be al- chronically money-losing travel, telecoms, steel pro-
entrepreneurs and market companies. lowed any management “zombie companies” will duction and coal mining.
forces a bigger role but say The plan promises to pro- control. be cleaned up or shut Most lending by state banks
state ownership will remain goes to government com-
the core of the economy. panies while entrepreneurs
The plan issued late Sunday who generate China’s new
reflects the complex path jobs and wealth rely most-
the party walks in trying to ly on an informal under-
develop the world’s sec- ground credit market.
ond-largest economy while Sheng Hong, director of the
preserving its monopoly on Unirule Institute in Beijing,
power. an independent research
It calls for state companies group and a prominent re-
to face more free-market form advocate, criticized
competition, become fi- the latest announcement
nancially self-supporting as “not meaningful.” He
and be divided into com- said it fails to address criti-
mercial entities and those cal issues including curtail-
that serve social purposes. ing monopolies and state
It gives no details of how in- companies’ access to low-
dividual companies will be cost credit, land and other
treated and no timetable resources. q
Depomed rejects Horizon’s latest takeover offer
NEW YORK (AP) — De- bid directly to Depomed’s per share, a 60 percent pre- $28 per share. Horizon val- special meetings to vote
pomed Inc. on Monday shareholders. mium to the $20.64 closing ued its initial offer at $2.1 on replacing its board of
rejected Horizon Pharma Dublin-based Horizon Phar- price of Depomed stock billion, or $29.95 per share. directors. This comes more
PLC’s sweetened $2.4 bil- ma makes the rheumatoid in early July, before Hori- Depomed’s board also than a month after Horizon
lion hostile takeover offer, arthritis drug Duexis. De- zon went public with its first has adopted a “poison asked Depomed to set a
saying it still undervalues pomed has a portfolio that acquisition proposal.New- pill” measure that aims to shareholder vote on its bid
the company, and recom- includes the migraine drug ark, California-based De- thwart a hostile takeover and filed a lawsuit chal-
mended that its sharehold- Cambia and the painkiller pomed disputes the value attempt by essentially mak- lenging the poison pill pro-
ers reject the bid. Nucynta ER. On Sept. 8, of Horizon’s offers, saying ing it too expensive. vision. Shares of Depomed
Horizon had raised its offer Horizon said it would ex- they’re not as generous as Horizon, which owns a 3.7 rose 18 cents to $27.51 on
by about $300 million in July change 0.95 of its shares Horizon says they are. Ac- percent stake in Depomed, Monday and Horizon Phar-
after Depomed rejected its for each Depomed share. cording to Depomed the is also asking that drugmak- ma shares added 3 cents
first offer, and took the new It says the offer is worth $33 new offer values it at about er’s stock owners to call to $29.02. q
