zengrifter
Banned
'Junior' Johnson was barred at Bellagio, at one point a darling of the dot-com 'B2B' e-commerce rush.
He fought his case a long time, whereas I didn't even wait to be indicted! zg
He fought his case a long time, whereas I didn't even wait to be indicted! zg
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At one point, when PurchasePro was a Wall Street darling, Johnson owned shares worth about $1.2 billion. Living in Las Vegas, he had a penchant for expensive suits and counted casino mogul Steve Wynn among his many friends.
Go to Google News
Ex-Tech billionaire gets 9 years for stock fraud
By MATTHEW BARAKAT – 2 days ago
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A flashy Las Vegas entrepreneur who became a billionaire at the height of the dot-com bubble was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for stock fraud, capping a seven-year investigation that led to seven convictions.
The sentence meted out to Charles E. "Junior" Johnson, founder and CEO of now-defunct PurchasePro Inc., was significantly less than that sought by federal prosecutors, who had recommended he spend between 16 and 17 1/2 years behind bars for defrauding investors in his now defunct software company in 2001.
U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady ruled that because Johnson's crimes occurred more than seven years ago, he should be sentenced under older federal sentencing guidelines calling for a lesser sentence. Sentencing guidelines are not binding on judges, but frequently serve as a benchmark for their decisions.
Johnson was convicted last May of stock fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said he was the ringleader of a scheme to falsely inflate PurchasePro's revenue in the first three months of 2001, as the high-tech economy was in freefall. Seven people were convicted in a long-running investigation, which also exposed improper accounting practices at America Online, which had been PurchasePro's business partner.
Prosecutors said he orchestrated efforts in the first quarter of 2001 to inflate the company's revenue to meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The scheme, authorities said, included falsified and backdated contracts, and secret side deals with AOL, which had a marketing partnership with PurchasePro.
PurchasePro relied heavily on its partnership with AOL to sell its core product, a "marketplace license" and software that supposedly facilitated business-to-business commerce. But AOL could only sell the licenses by relying on the side deals in which PurchasePro agreed to buy equal amounts of goods and services from companies willing to buy from PurchasePro.
In all, seven PurchasePro employees, including Johnson, were convicted. Four others, including two midlevel executives at AOL, were acquitted of all charges.
While nobody at AOL was convicted of fraud, the company as a whole paid a $210 million fine in 2004 to settle criminal charges that it had aided and abetted stock fraud at PurchasePro.
Friday's sentencing, with Johnson in court wearing a striped prison jumpsuit, capped a remarkable downfall.
A Lexington, Ky., native, Johnson was a prominent civic booster in his hometown who had played guard for the University of Cincinnati basketball team in the 1980s. He made millions in charitable contributions in Lexington, including $2 million for a new gymnasium at Lexington Catholic High school.
MORE - (Dead link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jalLkc_p-f5W8Z0bzTp5k4rRVe0wD94F06A80)
At one point, when PurchasePro was a Wall Street darling, Johnson owned shares worth about $1.2 billion. Living in Las Vegas, he had a penchant for expensive suits and counted casino mogul Steve Wynn among his many friends.
Go to Google News
Ex-Tech billionaire gets 9 years for stock fraud
By MATTHEW BARAKAT – 2 days ago
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A flashy Las Vegas entrepreneur who became a billionaire at the height of the dot-com bubble was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for stock fraud, capping a seven-year investigation that led to seven convictions.
The sentence meted out to Charles E. "Junior" Johnson, founder and CEO of now-defunct PurchasePro Inc., was significantly less than that sought by federal prosecutors, who had recommended he spend between 16 and 17 1/2 years behind bars for defrauding investors in his now defunct software company in 2001.
U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady ruled that because Johnson's crimes occurred more than seven years ago, he should be sentenced under older federal sentencing guidelines calling for a lesser sentence. Sentencing guidelines are not binding on judges, but frequently serve as a benchmark for their decisions.
Johnson was convicted last May of stock fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said he was the ringleader of a scheme to falsely inflate PurchasePro's revenue in the first three months of 2001, as the high-tech economy was in freefall. Seven people were convicted in a long-running investigation, which also exposed improper accounting practices at America Online, which had been PurchasePro's business partner.
Prosecutors said he orchestrated efforts in the first quarter of 2001 to inflate the company's revenue to meet the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The scheme, authorities said, included falsified and backdated contracts, and secret side deals with AOL, which had a marketing partnership with PurchasePro.
PurchasePro relied heavily on its partnership with AOL to sell its core product, a "marketplace license" and software that supposedly facilitated business-to-business commerce. But AOL could only sell the licenses by relying on the side deals in which PurchasePro agreed to buy equal amounts of goods and services from companies willing to buy from PurchasePro.
In all, seven PurchasePro employees, including Johnson, were convicted. Four others, including two midlevel executives at AOL, were acquitted of all charges.
While nobody at AOL was convicted of fraud, the company as a whole paid a $210 million fine in 2004 to settle criminal charges that it had aided and abetted stock fraud at PurchasePro.
Friday's sentencing, with Johnson in court wearing a striped prison jumpsuit, capped a remarkable downfall.
A Lexington, Ky., native, Johnson was a prominent civic booster in his hometown who had played guard for the University of Cincinnati basketball team in the 1980s. He made millions in charitable contributions in Lexington, including $2 million for a new gymnasium at Lexington Catholic High school.
MORE - (Dead link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jalLkc_p-f5W8Z0bzTp5k4rRVe0wD94F06A80)
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