Biovail settles charges with SEC

Naked short selling whiner Biovail (NYSE: BVF) has settled accounting fraud charged with the SEC, agreeing to pay a fine of $10 million. According to the SEC's complaint:

The SEC's complaint alleges that present and former senior Biovail executives, obsessed with meeting quarterly and annual earnings guidance, repeatedly overstated earnings and hid losses in order to deceive investors and create the appearance of achieving earnings goals. When it ultimately became impossible to continue concealing the company's inability to meet its own earnings guidance, Biovail actively misled investors and analysts about the reasons for the company's poor performance.

The SEC adds that former chairman and chief executive officer Eugene Melnyk, former chief financial officer Brian Crombie, current controller John Miszuk; and current chief financial officer Kenneth G. Howling still face charges.

Biovail's allegations of a naked short selling conspiracy and menacing antics intimidated analysts, convincing Banc of America Securities, which had been negative about the company, to drop coverage of the stock. On his blog, financial journalist Gary Weiss writes that "Despite all the post-Enron rhetoric about the sanctity of independent analysts, the SEC has done woefully little against companies like Biovail and Overstock that want analysts to be obedient little puppies."

It seems like every few weeks, another naked short selling poster child is exposed as a securities fraud. Back in 2006, then-CEO Eugene Melnyk told 60 Minutes that "When you've got these companies, these people out there trying to bring you down, we're lucky we survived."

Moral of story: when a company starts complaining about naked short sellers conspiring to drive down the share price, sell the stock and ask questions after.