BRIEFLY / TECHNOLOGY : More Insider Trading Found at Drkoop.com
For the second time in less than a month, Drkoop.com Inc. acknowledged that a company director has violated federal insider trading rules. Richard Helppie sold shares of the health-care Web site’s initial public offering three days after purchasing them in June, a spokeswoman said. Last month, another director, ABC television medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman, acknowledged she violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules when her husband sold shares of the Austin, Texas-based company only a month after the IPO. In addition, company founder and namesake C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general, and the company’s chief financial officer, Sue Georgen-Saad, failed to file forms disclosing indirect purchases of stock the day of the initial public offering, the company acknowledged. A company official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an internal review of the failure to file proper forms has been completed. “We’ve taken all the appropriate measures and we consider the matter closed,†the official said. According to the company, Helppie purchased 400 shares of stock June 8 for $9 a share and sold it for $16.63 on June 11. The company official said Helppie has already returned his profit of about $3,050 as required by law.
