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Department of Justice Logo 

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Northern District of California

 

11th Floor, Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Avenue, Box 36055
San Francisco, California  94102

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

 

Tel: (415) 436-7200
Fax: (415) 436-7234

 

May 26, 2004

United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan, a member of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force, announced today that the former Chief Executive Officer of Informix Corp., Phillip E. White, was sentenced today to two months in federal prison for securities fraud.  The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer following Mr. White's guilty plea to one count of signing and filing a materially false Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July of 1997, in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 77x. 

Mr. White, 61, of Atherton, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury on November 21, 2002.  He was charged with eight counts of securities, wire, and mail fraud, in violation of 15 U.S.C. §§ 77x, 78j(b), and 78m(b); and 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343.

Mr. White admitted that on July 16, 1997, while he was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Informix Corp, he signed and Informix filed an SEC Form S-8 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, registering 12 million shares of company stock for distribution to Informix employees.  The Form S-8 incorporated Informix's 1996 financial statements by reference.  Mr. White admitted that, at the time he signed the S-8 and caused it to be filed with the SEC, he knew that it was false and misleading because Informix's 1996 financial statements were not accurate, but rather should have been restated to reflect a material amount of revenue that should have been reversed. 

The parties' plea agreement acknowledged that one factor affecting the sentence under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the amount of loss to shareholders from the violation, could not reasonably be estimated under the particular facts of this case.

Judge Breyer sentenced the defendant to two months in federal prison, a fine of $10,000, along with a two-year period of supervised release and 300 hours of community service.  The defendant will begin serving the sentence on August 2, 2004. 

This prosecution was the result of an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, in coordination with the SEC's Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Another Informix officer, the company's Vice-President in charge of European operations Walter Königseder, was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2000 for wire and securities fraud violations.  Königseder is a citizen and resident of Munich, Germany.  The United States has been unable to secure his extradition as a result of German law. 

Patrick D. Robbins and Miles F. Ehrlich are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted this case, with the assistance of paralegal Linda Woo and legal assistants Katie Cannuli and Lori Lucchetti.

A copy of this press release, the indictment, and plea agreement may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.  Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.

ll press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.

mattmed