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Corporations Keyed to Hazen
Dirks v. SEC
Citation:
463 U.S. 646 (1983)Facts
On March 6, 1973, Dirks received information from Ronald Secrist, a former officer of Equity Funding of America. Secrist alleged that the assets of Equity Funding were vastly overstated as the result of fraudulent corporate practices. He also stated that various regulatory agencies had failed to act on similar charges made by Equity Funding employees. He urged Dirks to verify the fraud and disclose it publicly. While Dirks was in Log Angeles, he was in touch with William Blundell, the Wall Street Journal’s LA bureau chief. Dirks urged Blundell to write a story on the fraud allegations. During the 2-week period in which Dirks pursued his investigation and spread word of Secrist’s charges, the price of Equity Funding stock fell from $26 per share to less than $15 per share. Then the SEC filed a complaint against Equity Funding and only then did the Wall Street Journal publish a story based largely on the information assembled by Dirks. The SEC began an investigation into Dirks’ role in the exposure of the fraud.
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Topic Resources
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Corporate Liability