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Sarbanes-Oxley News & Developments
Fired Gemstar execs may get $30MMedia companys filing says former CEO Yuen is still elegible for severence despite his dismissal.
> > Former Gemstar Chief Executive Henry Yuen could receive nearly $30 million in cash severance despite being fired last week from an advisory role after regulators sought to jail him for not cooperating with a probe of the companys finances, Gemstar said Monday (April 21, 2003).
Yuen is still entitled to the money under a November agreement, the media and technology company said. But the funds remain in a separate bank account and will not be released to him until next month unless authorities move to seize the money first, Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. has said.
Yuens lawyer, Stanley Arkin, told Reuters on Monday he expected the SEC will attempt to seize the funds under provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Separately, Arkin and Yuen intended to contest his dismisal from LA-based Genstar, which provides interactive programming guides, saying the company was trying to get out of a previously negotiated deal with its founder.
The SEC has filed contempt of court charges against Yuen and asked a federal judge in LA to jail and fine him after he failed to testify into an ongoing probe of the companys accounting.
In a report with the SEC, Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. said Yuen was eligible to collect termination fees and unpaid bonuses and vacation time worth more than $29.5 million despite his dismissal.
Yuen was forced aside as chief executive by Gemstars lasgest shareholder, News Corp Ltd. after a series of setbacks and accounting concerns hit the company and its stock, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Gemstar on Friday fired Yuen from his role heading an international business development unit for Gemstar, and removed him from the companys board of directors.
The SEC subpoenaed Yuen to testify in its investigation of Gemstar. the commission in March sought a court order to force Yuen to honor the subpoena, and filed the contempt motion on Thursday after he missed agreed testimony dates.
Also fired last Friday was Elsie Leung, Gemstars former CFO. If Leung successfully appeals her termination, she would get 666,667 shares of common stock, 209,308 shares of restricted stock or stock units and salary of up to $1.5 million,
Source: CNN Money article dated April 21,2003
Published:2003-04-22
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