SEC News Digest, 02-16-1983
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
sec news Issue 83-32 ....... February 16, 1983 U.S. SECURITIES ft.ND ,<.;c-'ON ."'CHANCE COMM 1...,-=>" NOTICE OF COMMISSION MEETINGS Following is a schedule of Commission meetings which will be conducted pursuant to provisions of the Government in the Sunshine Act. In general, the Commission expects to follow a schedule of holding closed meetings on Tuesdays, and open meet- ings on Thursday morning. Meetings on Wednesday, and if necessary on Thursday afternoons, will be either open or closed according to the requirement. of agenda items under consideration. The Commission will not normally meet on Mondays or Friday •• Visitors are welcome at all open meetings, insofar as space is available. Meetings will be held in the Commission Meeting Room, Room lC30, at the Commission's headquarters' building, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC. Persons wiShing to photograph or videotape Commission meetings must obtain permission in advance from the Secretary of the Commission. Persons wiShing to tape record a Commission meeting should notify the Secretary's office 48 hours in advance of the meeting. CLOSED MEETING - WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1983 - 10:00 A.M. The subject matter of the February 23 closed meeting will be: Settlement of injunc- tive action; Access to investigative files by Federal, State, or Self-Regulatory authorities; Formal orders of investigation: Litigation matter; Settlement of administrative proceedings of an enforcement nature; Institution of administrative proceeding of an enforcement nature; Institution of injunctive actions; Opinions. OPEN MEETING - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1983 - 10:00 A.M. The subject matter of the February 24 open meeting will be: (1) Consideration of whether to amend the Commission's rules governing maintenance of employee performance appraisal related documents in order to conform the rules to new regulations adopted by the Office of Personnel Management. FOR FURTHER INFORMA- TION, PLEASE CONTACT Laurie S. Schaffer at (202) 272-2453. (2) Consideration of whether to proceed with rulemaking or other appropriate steps with respect to one or more of the seven securities recommendations from the first SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT H. Steven Holtzman at (202) 272-7617. (3) Consideration of whether to publish for comment certain technical amendments relating to various rules, forms and schedules under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such amendments clarify certain language and correct technical omissions and errata. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Gerard V. Comizio at (202) 272-2589. (4) Consideration of whether to adopt on a final basis under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 certain temporary amendments to Form ADV, the investment adviser regis- tration application. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Arthur E. Dinerman at (202) 272-30~1. (5) Consideration of whether to publish for comment Rule 6c-8 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which would provide registered insurance company separate accounts and others with exemptive relief from various provisions of the Act with respect to variable annuity contracts participating in such accounts to the extent necessary to permit them to impose a deferred sales load upon redemption of any such contract and to deduct a full annual fee under certain circumstances. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Mary K. Crook at (202) 272-3010. (6) Consideration of whether to propose for comment amendments ~o Rule 482 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Item 17 of Part I of Form N-l under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to permit investment companies to advertise their securities by direct mail, modify the method by which money market mutual funds calculate their yield, and permit money market mutual funds to advertise their compound yield. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Gregory K. Todd at (202) 272-7317. (7) Consideration of whether to authorize issuance of a release which announces the adoption of amendments to the Commission's rule regarding the independence of accountants. The amendments revise the definition of the term "member" in §210.2-01(b) (Rule 2-0l(b) of Regulation S-X) and make minor clarification changes in the rule. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Clarence M. Staubs at (202) 272-2130. CLOSED MEETING - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1983 -IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE OPEN MEETING The subject matter of the February 24 closed meeting will be: Settlement of administrative proceedings of an enforcement nature~ Institution of injunctive action~ Litigation matter; Institution of administrative proceeding of an enforce- ment nature. AT TIMES CHANGES IN COMMISSION PRIORITIES REQUIRE ALTERATIONS IN THE SCHEDULING OF MEETING ITEMS. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND TO ASCERTAIN WHAT, IF ANY, MATTERS HAVE BEEN ADDED, DELETED OR POSTPONED, PLEASE CONTACT: Diane Klinke at (202) 272-2014 ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS CLABIR CORPORATION CITED The Commission has issued an Order Instituting Proceedings pursuant to Section l5(c) (4) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Conclusions and Order of the Commission with respect to Clabir Corporation. Clabir consented to the entry of the Commission's Conclusions and Order without admitting or denying any of the matters contained therein. Clabir, in connection with its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 1981, determined the market value of certain marketable securities on the basis of oral offers to purchase such securities which it stated it had received. In its Order, the Commission concluded that Statement of FAS No. 12 requires that marketable equity securities included in a company's financial statements are to be valued at the lower of cost or market value. The Commission concluded that mar- ket value under FAS 12 is the aggregate of the sales price or bid and·ask price currently available on a national securities exchange or in the over-the-counter market of a single share of a security times the number of shares in the portfolio. The Commission concluded that, under the circumstances of this case, Clabir could not determine the market value based upon a price other than the price then avail- able ~n the national securities exchange on which these securities were traded. In addition, the Order concluded that Clabir should have disclosed in its October 31, 1981 10-Q, the specific basis for its accounting treatment, the NYSE quoted price for the marketable equity securities being valued and the fact that a figure other than the NYSE quoted price was used in determining the market value for such securi- ties. (ReI. 34-19504) WALL STREET WEST, INC., OTHERS Administrative Law Judge Ralph Hunter Tracy has filed an initial decision ordering that the registrations as broker-dealers of Wall Street West, Inc. and General Bond & Share Co., both of Denver, Colorado, be revoked and the firms expelled from the NASD; that Theodore V. Abbruzzese, Walter G. Asmus, Kenneth W. Sandberg and Sam C. Pandolfo be barred from association with any broker-dealer; and that John L. Brown be suspended from association with a broker-dealer for nine months. The administrative law judge found that Wall Street West, General Bond & Share, Abbruzzese, ~s~us, Sandberg and Pandolfo wilfully violated the antifraud provisions o~ the Secur~t~e~ ~ct of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in connection w~th the underwr~~~~g, offer and sale of 6,000,000 shares of Lake City Mines, Inc., a ColoradO gold m~n~ng company, at $.25 a share •. Additionally, Judge Tracy found NEWS DIGEST, February 16, 1983 that Brown failed reasonably to supervise Asmus with a view to preventing the violation found to have been committed by him. The decision is subject to appeal to the Commission. CIVIL PROCEEDINGS MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ENTERED AGAINST MARTIN H. MEYERSON AND M. H. MEYERSON AND CO. The Commission announced that on February 3 the Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, entered a Memorandum Opinion and Order in SEC v. Micro-Therapeutics Inc., et al. Judge Lowe's decision related primarily to Martin H. Meyerson (Meyerson) and M. H. Meyerson and Co. (Meyerson & Co.), the only defendants in this action who had not reached a settle- ment with the Commission. Meyerson & Co. is a broker-dealer whose main offices are in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Meyerson is the President and principal owner of the firm. The Commission charged that commencing in June 1970, Meyerson and Meyerson & Co., along with the other named defendants, entered into a scheme and artifice to defraud and to control and manipulate the market price of the stock of Micro-Therapeutics, Inc. (Micro), a newly formed company that purportedly produced a cream that cured male pattern baldness. As a further part of the scheme to defraud, the Meyerson defendants were alleged to have destroyed records of the brokerage firm required to be maintained for a period of six years under the pretext that a fire·in the storage facility destroyed the records when in fact many of the firm's records were not damaged by water or fire. Based upon the evidence presented at trial, Judge Lowe found that Meyerson and Meyerson and Co., violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws. Judge Lowe also concluded that by causing the destruction of brokeraae records which Meyerson and Co. was required to keep under provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Meyerson and Meyerson and Co. violated Section l7(a) of the Exchange Act. The Court further concluded that Meyerson and MeyerRon and Co. had aided and abetted violations of the antifraud provisions by the other defendants in this action. Finally, the Court concluded that Meyerson and Meyerson and Co. should be enjoined from future violations of the statutes and rules they were found to have violated and that these defendants were jointly and spverally liable with the other defen- dants in this action to disgorge over Sl.6 million dollars of illegal profits frcm the fraudulent scheme.