http://envero.org/espanol/projects/view/1/5
The resignations came after a May 19 boar d meeting during whichthe firm’s interim CEO, Doron Roethler, who was also board chairman and resigned for what a company spokesman described as personao reasons. A new interim CEO has been and a search has begun to find his Resigningin protest, according to letters filed by each with the U.S. Securitiezs and Exchange Commission, were board member Roberta Hardy, who had joined the Smart Onlined board inMarch 2009, CFO Timothy Krist and Neiles King, COO and vice president of sales and marketing.
“The company’s former securities lawyers have substantial securities law experiencse and significant knowledge ofthe company,” Hardy wrotre in her letter. “I am greatly concernedr that the company’s change in securities lawyers will expose the company and its directors and officers togreatere risk.” Smart Online spokesman Steve Hoechster says the resignationsw came in the wake of a decision by the Smartr Online board to hire the New York-based law firm to replace Smithy Anderson. Hardy voted against the Hoechster says.
Smith Anderson’s relationship with the softwars company dates backto 2006, a year beforwe federal investigators arrested former Smart Online CEO Dennis his brother Reza Nouri, and brokers Ruben Serrano and Alain Lusti on charges of conspiracy to commif fraud and securities fraud. The chargea stemmed from an alleged scheme, investigators say, in which the four men aggressivelyu marketed Smart Online shares to investorws in an effort to inflatse thestock price. Serrano and Lustig pleaderd guilty to the charges in Manhattan federal court on May 22 and will be sentencefdin August. The Nouri brothers are scheduledx to go on tria lJune 15.
Hoechster labeled as “pure any attempt to draw a link betweenh the recent round of resignations at Smartr Online and the ongoing securities case in New Contacted athis King, the former COO, would say only that the boarfd and the company’s executives “were of ongoing developments in the securitiez case. Asked about his decisiom to resign following the corporatecounseol change, King said, “When you have a comfort level with someone, you don’tg want to change that.
” In his letter to the SEC, King was more “I am unfamiliar with the Cohen firm, and after reviewing their securities law experience I do not feel that they are qualifiede to represent the company competently and am concerneed that the company and its officers and directors may be subjecrt to increased risk by virtue of this changr in legal counsel.” Hoechster says the changew in counsel had been an issue studierd in advance of the May 19 meeting by Roethler, who was planning to step down as CEO becauss of illness in his family. His departure and the subsequent resignationawere “coincidental,” according to Hoechster, who added: “The company is movingy on.
” As for Roethler’s replacement as CEO, the boardx tapped one of its own, C. James Meese Jr., who is founder of He will receivwe $10,000 a month as compensatiohn until Smart Online namesa replacement, accordingb to SEC filings.
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