True Religion chief sells $60+ million worth of stock -- why?

When the current CEO of a $500 million company sells 3.2 million shares of stock -- more than half of his holdings -- it's bound to raise some eyebrows.

So give True Religion Apparel (NASDAQ: TRLG) for not trying to slip that one through. Instead, the company took the unusual step of issuing a press release announcing the sales by founder Jeffrey Lubbell before the filing of the Form 4 with the SEC. Of course, it couldn't help using the press release as an opportunity at spin. Take a look:

Mr. Lubell sold these shares for two purposes: first, to fulfill an obligation due under the marital dissolution agreement with his former wife; and second, to continue his financial, estate and tax planning.

So that explains it! Except how much of it was to settle the marital dissolution agreement (Us poor folk call it divorce...) and how much of it was for "financial, estate and tax planning"?

And more importantly, what exactly is "financial, estate and tax planning"? Or better yet, what stock sale wouldn't fall under the umbrella of financial planning? Might he have sold the shares to build a house made of gold, buy an island, or take a vacation in outer space? Of course the shares were sold for financial purposes! Any transaction involving money is financial.

This press release looks like a pretty desperate attempt at damage control. It'll be interesting to see how the market responds.