BACKDATED STOCK OPTIONS
 

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP Now Investigating Stock Options Backdating Practices By Monster Worldwide

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP is currently investigating stock options backdating practices at over 100 companies, including Monster Worldwide.

Regarding Monster Worldwide, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, "The New York job-search company received a a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on June 12 relating to its option grants. Monster's securities filings show it made seven options grants between 1997 and 2001 to James J. Treacy, who became its No. 2 executive before leaving the company in 2002. One was dated at the stock's lowest closing price of 1997, and three others carried the lowest closing prices of various quarters. Other senior executives and employees also received grants with some of those dates. The company is conducting an internal review. On June 14, Monster said it had been notified of an informal SEC probe. On July 11, Monster said it may need to restate financial results for 2005 and prior years to record additional stock-based compensation charges. In a short statement on Sept. 19, Monster said longtime general counsel Myron Olesnyckyj was suspended "effective immediately."  On Oct. 9, the company said Chairman and CEO Andrew McKelvey resigned both positions, citing in part the demands of coping with the options probe. On Oct. 30, Monster said McKelvey has resigned from the board and had declined to be interviewed by a board committee that is reviewing grants.  The company said on Dec. 13 that former officials "intentionally" backdated option grants during a six-year period. Monster lowered nine years of reported net income by $272 million to account for the backdating.  On Feb. 15, 2007, Myron Olesnyckyj, the former general counsel of Monster Worldwide, pleaded guilty to two criminal charges related to backdating stock options."

If you are a current stockholder in Monster Worldwide and would like to learn about your legal rights in seeking to remedy improper options backdating at the company, please click here or call 800-287-8119 to contact our paralegal, Sophie Horowitz.  Our initial consultation and case assessment will be done at no charge or obligation to you.

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP is a leading force in bringing lawsuits on behalf of shareholders who own stock in corporations implicated in the rampant and ongoing stock options backdating scandal.  Led by attorneys Edward F. Haber and Michelle H. Blauner, our firm has already filed numerous cases, in both state and federal courts, concerning the improper backdating of stock options granted to officers, directors, and executives who appear to have used backdated stock options to create for themselves tens, or even hundreds, of millions of dollars in profit and unrealized gain at the direct expense of their corporations.

To learn more about our efforts targeting unlawful corporate stock options practices at corporations nationwide, please click here to view our main stock options backdating webpage, which contains detailed explanations of stock options, option backdating, and why option backdating can be illegal.  Also featured are complaints filed by our firm in other stock options backdating cases, as well as a full list of all the corporations we are currently investigating.