BRONFMAN CONVICTED OF MISLEADING VIVENDI INVESTORS
Music mogul EDGAR BRONFMAN, JR. has been ordered to pay a $6.7 million (GBP4.5 million) fine for misleading investors of his former company Vivendi Universal.
A French court found the Warner Music Group chairman and CEO guilty of manipulating stock prices on Friday (21Jan11) and also handed him a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
The charges date back a decade to 2001 and conclude a seven-year investigation into dealings at Europe’s biggest media group.
A statement from Bronfman reads, "As I have consistently stated, my trades were proper." Former Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier was also convicted of misappropriation of company funds and misleading reporting. He was fined $200,000 (GBP133,000) and given a three-year suspended sentence, which he plans to appeal. He was cleared on another count of manipulating Vivendi’s stock price.
Bronfman, whose son Ben is hitmaker M.I.A.’s fiance, became part of the Vivendi group when Messier bought up Universal Studios, MCA Records and USA Networks in 1999.
A U.S. jury previously found Vivendi liable of misleading investors from 2000 to 2002.
Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
