Ex-PeopleSoft Exec to Seek Plea Deal
From Times staff and wire reports
Federal prosecutors accused a former PeopleSoft Inc. sales director of insider trading ahead of news last year that the software maker expected an earnings shortfall.
Kenneth W. Mellert arranged for a friend to buy $16,000 in “put options” ahead of an April 1 announcement by the Pleasanton, Calif.-based firm, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco alleged.
Put options are securities whose value rises when a company’s stock price falls.
Mellert does not plan to contest the charges and will seek to negotiate a plea agreement with prosecutors, said his lawyer Bob Breakstone.
PeopleSoft shares rose 18 cents to $18.18 Thursday on Nasdaq.
