Monster Worldwide Inc., the world’s largest online- recruiting company, will pay $2.5 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit for making misleading public statements about stock options it issued.
The suit and settlement were filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court. A federal jury last week found former Monster Chief Operating Officer James Treacy, 51, guilty in a criminal trial of defrauding investors by improperly accounting for backdated stock options at the New York-based company.
Monster reported in 2001 that net income was $69 million when it was really $3.4 million after options expenses were recorded, prosecutors said in the Treacy case. The company said in December 2006 that it overstated earnings by $271.9 million in the previous nine years because of improperly recorded option grants. Prosecutors said the company understated compensation by $339 million.
Monster last year agreed to pay $47.5 million to resolve an investor lawsuit over its options accounting. The agreement represented a recovery of 27.5 percent of potential damages allegedly suffered by investors, a lawyer said at the time.
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