The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a civil action against UnitedHealth Group Inc., and former United Health General Counsel David J. Lubben for allegedly engaging in a scheme to backdate stock options.  According to the SEC, between 1994 and 2005 United Health concealed more than $1 billion in stock option compensation by providing senior executives and other employees with secretly backdated grants and avoided reporting the expenses.  According to the Commission’s complaint, certain UnitedHealth officers used hindsight to pick advantageous grant dates for the company’s nonqualified stock options that on many occasions coincided with, or were close to, dates of historically low annual and quarterly closing prices for UnitedHealth’s common stock. (more…)

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, when the SEC sued her employer - the Joshua Tree Group - the company’s book keeper followed instructions from the company’s founder, Neulan Midkiff, to remove records and computers from the office.  The book keeper lied to a federal grand jury about it, but is now telling her story to a federal jury assembled to consider Neulan’s liability.  More than 500 Minnesotans lost approximately $30 million in the scheme. (more…)