Monster Exec Pleads Guilty to Backdating Charges
Myron Olesnyckyj, 45, reaped $381,000 from the practice
– which he agreed to pay back – and faces a
potential sentence of 25 years in prison and $5.2 million
in fines for participating in the back dating scheme from
1996 to 2003.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday filed a
civil complaint against Olesnyckyj for securities fraud in
connection to backdating, the first against a Monster
executive related to backdating.
Olesnyckyj – who was ousted in November 2006 as the stock
options scandal unraveled – was hired at the firm as
general counsel in 1994, and when the company when public
in 1996, he and others settled on an agreement to backdate
annual companywide stock options grants and purposely
excluded them from the financial records (See
Corporate Carnage Continues in Stock
Options Scandal with Monster Firing
).
Prosecutors said that new employees were promised they
would be given options at the lowest price within the first
30 days following their first day and that Olesnyckyj hid
this practice from auditors.
In December 2006, the company announced that it would
restate its earnings by $219.9 million to account for the
backdated stock options and reported that it made more than
$500,000 in inappropriate options payments to founder
Andrew McKelvey (See
Monster Inc. Earnings Dive $217.9M From
Options Backdating
).
The company said that McKelvey resigned from his post in
October after refusing to comment on the company’s stock
options practices during an internal investigation,
according to the AP.