SEC investigates timing of USANA chairman's stock sale

Posted Jun 13th 2007 10:00AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Newspapers, Scandals

The New York Post reported today that the SEC is looking into the timing of USANA Health Sciences (NASDAQ: USNA) chairman Myron Wentz's sale of 85,000 shares of the company's stock on February 12th at $60.98, less than a dollar off the stock's all-time high. On March 12th, Barry Minkow and the Fraud Discovery Institute released a scathing report on Usana, characterizing it as a pyramid scheme with a hopelessly overpriced product, sending the stock tumbling. The shares closed on Tuesday at $41.36.

According to the Post, regulators are trying to figure out whether Wentz was tipped off about Minkow's report in advance. Usana hired Kroll, a corporate investigation firm in late April. In December, Minkow had tried to hire the same firm and had shared much of his research on the case with them before any agreement was reached.

Usana disclosed in March that the SEC was investigating the company based on Minkow's allegations.

Tags: insider Trading, InsiderTrading, SEC, Usana, USNA