Guilty! Former Take-Two Boss Cops a Plea on Stock Option Charges

February 14, 2007
Reuters is reporting that former Take-Two CEO Ryan Brant entered a guilty plea today on charges that he manipulated stock options.

Brant will pay $7.3 million to settle cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Manhattan District Attorney's office. In a statement, Brant said:
I am deeply sorry for my role in the inappropriate manner Take-Two granted incentive stock options. I accept responsibility for my actions, and apologize to the company's shareholders.

Business Week has more, including word that Brant, who could have received a four-year prison sentence for his crimes, will likely receive probation when he is sentenced in August. 

Last month Take-Two announced the results of an internal investigation which revealed that Brant, who left the company in October, had manipulated options.

GamePolitics has learned that the Manhattan D.A. will be holding a press conference at noon today. More details should be forthcoming at that time.

Comments

Submitted by Haunted (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 12:57.
Well, I haven't paid too much attention to any news on this front from Take-Two, but man, this is really not what they needed. They'd just seen a small improvement of their stock. /cry Take-Two.

Submitted by Brokenscope (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 13:04.
Well at least he admitted to it an saved a bunch of people sometime.

Submitted by GoodRobotUs (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 13:23.
Well, this has been coming for quite a while, Rock* is a multi-million dollar corp, unfortunately, when you get to that kind of value, you will always get one or two leeches, be they inside the company using paperwork or outside the company using other methods.

Mostly, it's the Shareholders who will suffer, not a good PR situation for R*, but then they seem to surf the opinion envelope anyway, so I don't see it hurting them in the long term to be honest, it's not as if they are the first ever company to have it's management caught dabbling.

Submitted by Terminator44 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 14:42.
I looked at the headline, and I imagined Phoenix Wright weeping, knowing he has failed his client.

Submitted by DoggySpew (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 16:44.
@GoodRobot

Rockstar has got nothing to do with it. It is Take Two that got those problems. Rockstar just makes the games, Take Two is the publisher.

Submitted by GoodRobotUs (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 17:13.
Sorry, too used to saying Rock*, my mistake. It's right there in the article too :-/

I meant Take 2 :)

Submitted by PyroHazard (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 18:58.
In the distance, you can hear a nasally-sounding laughing made by a certain enemy of Take2 Interactive...

Least they are cleaning house.

Submitted by hayabusa75 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 20:27.
Regrettable, but this isn't the kind of thing that will make me (or anyone else, I'd guess) stop buying their games.

Submitted by Mysticgamer (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 20:56.
Watch JT try to claim credit for this too.

Submitted by kurisu7885 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 21:20.
Let's hope Take Star, I mean Take Two recovers, as they probably will.

Submitted by Take-Two Investor (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 22:19.
Take-Two stock (TTWO) soared on the news today, that means all their troubles are behind them and does not affect current management or studios, just some former executive.

Submitted by aefjjjjjj (not verified) on Fri, 11/09/2007 - 23:57.
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