WFI to owe $30M-$40M

An exhaustive internal review of Wireless Facilities Inc.’s stock option-granting and pricing practices from 1998 to 2005 concluded that the company will owe between $30 million and $40 million due to improprieties during that eight-year span.
More than 40 million pages of electronic and hard copy documents were reviewed and 18 current and former employees were interviewed.
Vencent Donlan, a former stock-option administrator for the company, is the only individual directly caught up in the crosshairs. The company review concluded that he engaged in a “fraudulent scheme by which he misappropriated from the company options to purchase more than 700,000 shares of stock. Ill-gotten stocks from this scheme exceeded $6.3 million.”
The company is seeking return of the funds in cooperation with a federal criminal investigation of Donlan by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Donlan has since plead guilty to federal criminal charges brought against him by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The company plans to restate its financial reports for various periods during the eight years and intends to file late annual and quarterly reports with the SEC by or before Sept. 10.
The company’s stock was down 4 cents to $2.08 per share following the news.