Dorfman Part of SEC Probe, Magazine Says

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether USA Today business columnist Dan Dorfman may have been used to manipulate the prices of stocks he has written about, a news magazine reported Monday.

The reported investigation focuses on whether Centaur Partners, a Maryland-based investment partnership that has established small initial positions in several prominent companies, may be manipulating the stocks of those companies, U.S. News & World Report said in its latest edition.

The SEC is seeking to determine whether Dorfman, who has written about Centaur’s stock forays often during the past 14 months, has knowingly or unknowingly been used to drive up prices of those stocks, the magazine said.

When Dorfman reported that Centaur was buying stock in such companies as B. F. Goodrich and Pennwalt, the shares rose on speculation of possible takeovers. The reported probe centers on whether Centaur was in turn selling the stock to investors, who then suffered losses when a bid did not materialize, the magazine said.

A spokesman for the SEC in Washington would not comment, saying it is the agency’s policy not to confirm or to deny the existence of any investigation.

No one is accusing Dorfman of personally profiting from information in his columns, and he emphatically denied in a telephone interview that he has been used in efforts to manipulate stock prices.