Allen was careless on stock options
2006-10-11
Source: Hampton Roads Pilot
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rss feedCandidate George Allen's claim that he misunderstood the U.S. Senate's financial disclosure requirements regarding stock options rings hollow.
If the incumbent senator and his attorneys failed to understand that stock options need to be reported as assets, that's only because they didn't delve deeply enough into the law.
That would be a curious omission for a senator who's had plenty of reason to pay attention to the fine print on ethics and stock options.
A few years back, after getting an OK from the Senate Ethics Committee, Allen reaped a nifty $280,000 when he cashed in on options given him by a Lynchburg electronics firm. A Lynchburg newspaper estimated that Allen, who served on the company's advisory board, earned the payout with as little as two days' work.
Now, the Associated Press reports that Allen failed for five years to disclose additional options granted him by Commonwealth Biotechnologies, on whose board Allen served after he left the governor's office and before he became a senator.
In May 1999, the company gave Allen the option to purchase 15,000 shares of company stock at $7.50 a share, according to the AP. The option remains in effect until 2009. That was a good deal financially back when Commonwealth's stock hovered between $9 and $10 a share. It's a bust today with stock selling closer to $2. Whether the arrangement becomes pay dirt or fool's gold before 2009 depends on Commonwealth's fortunes, which - oh, by the way - depend in part on government contracts.
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