MLS, and US Soccer is in very grave danger

Considering they arrested the gang from Adelphia, I am a bit worried about this...

 

Why is it bad for employees to have a majority of their 401k in company stock, but CEO's have to keep every last cent in it?

What's so curious about a man selling stock near the height of the biggest bubble in history and THREE YEARS before all of this 20/20 hindsight?

Also, please note when he sold the stock and when he stepped down as CEO--there's your conspiracy.

 

Since a 401k consists of funds which invest in certain stocks, if the management of an insolvent company encourages employees to invest in the company through the 401k, while themselves selling stock in the company, then the managers have fraudently used the employees' investment to prop up the stock price for managers' benefit. They ought to be shot.

 

Maybe we can shoot Anshutz at halftime of the MLS Cup. Ratings would no doubt get a boost.

There's also a discussion of this over on the B&M board:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=3816

 

Well if Anshutz is taken down by the Feds, then the MLS would be dead for sure. Let's hope he didn't do anything illegal. If not the A-League will be the premiere league in the USA again.

 

Overstated revenues do not "go" to inside traders. Inflating revenue and trading on inside information are completely different concepts.

A person with holdings the size of Anschutz's Qwest Holdings will frequently set up a "regularly scheduled" sale program, under which they sell pieces of their overall stake whenever the stock is strong.

There are no allegations that anyone at Qwest did anything that anyone at Adelphia got arrested for yet.

Don't get overly emotional about what will happen to Phil just yet.

Phil has other investments, as well.

And, he doesn't bankroll the USSF like he does MLS.

 

Been following this for sometime now, and from what I have read, heard and deduced, Anshcutz is in little if any trouble at all. The only trouble he is in is that Quest is looking to be the next telecom to fall in recent months. Yes, he did make $1.5 billion in stock trades, but they were not illegal, only extremely savy (or so it seems now, there is no information stating he was in the wrong). His stock trades seem to have been made in earnest and should not get him in trouble. The other focuses of the brewhaha (Nacchio and Woodruff), however, look to have some issues ahead.
Phil looks clean, but we will see how things shake out in the coming months.

 

We had a similar discussion earlier today on the DC United board.

Anschutz is in trouble because he was very senior management, as well as largest owner, of a company which is suspected of using extremely questionable accounting practices to manufacture revenues and hide debts. This allows a company to publish highly misleading financial reports which are used by analysts and investors use to determine the value of the company (reflected in its stock).

I have not heard any direct accusations against Anschutz yet, but he was co-chairman of Qwest's board of directors until last month. Uncle Phil resigned (voluntarily) at the same as Joseph Nacchio, his hand-picked chief executive, was forced to resign. No one thinks this is a coincidence.

I believe that the Department of Justice and SEC are both investigating Qwest.

 

Precisely, there is a very good chance that Sir Phil could be in BIG TROUBLE.

Let's not fantasize here. People in his company which he was Chairman of the Board, which is supposed to represent shareholders who now have found out that they have been bilked, may be facing jail time. Perhaps Phil won't be broke but it's hard to say right now how far things will go. He may face SEC charges, he will face civil suits, etc. And of course Qwest may yet go bankrupt, leaving what remains of his equity worthless.

That said, it's also equally stupid to say "MLS is in grave danger" or spend one's time worrying about it.

- Kevin

 

As for Phil selling his stock, he can't just immediately sell stock whenever he wants to. He has to file a form with the SEC declaring how many shares he wants to sell and in turn the SEC has to approve such a deal. Sometimes this takes days, sometimes weeks for approval. It's called insider trading(a legal kind, not the kind that that phrase is usually associated with). Uncle Phil's no Gordon Gecko. I work at Smith Barney and the talk around there hasn't once centered around Phil. The general consensus on the street is Joe Nacchio is the one behind all this. Yes Phil picked him, but apparently Phil wasn't entirely hands on with the business. He's not Scott Sullivan at WorldCom, he didn't do this himself. I guess the good that will come out of this is that Phil will finally have to do a frickin interview for the first time since the creation of the NYSE.

 

Let's get a few things straight. It's two v's in savvy and the plural of focus is foci. Also, the Great Chicago Fire was caused by meteor fragments from the Comet Gallena which broke up later that year. Similarly, the 1974 Chicago Fire started out with a record of 7-4, only to sustain a nine-game losing streak to end the season. The last one, a forfeit, enabled the Philadelphia Bell to qualify for the playoffs, who then had their playoff berth rescinded by the Commissioner because of poor ticket sales and given to the Charlotte Hornets.

 

I've got a friend who got axed from qwest about 6 months ago and from what he's told me in his drunken ramblings while on unemployment the majority of his bile and other peoples anger who work at the company is at nacchio. He never mentioned anschutz once...

 

Yes, Phil was Chairman of the Board not a senior executive. Board members are usually not involved in day to day company matters. As long as Phil has sold stock on a regular basis and did not leave any phone messages, notes, ... stating that he needed to sell by a certain time because they knew the stock was going down, then he will be fine.

 

Uncle Phil is a visionary. He had to vision to get out while the getting was good. Yeah is was still chairman of the board, but as was mentioned boards have little to do with day to day activities a a company. He'll be fine, he's already lost most of what is he going to lose from Qwest and stillhas billions in the bank.

MLS has funding for the next 5 years. The only thing this will potentially affect is the pace of building SSS. I would imagine he is going to be less likely to throw the extra cash around.

 

Re: Re: Re: MLS, and US Soccer is in very grave danger

The SEC does not indict people.

Insider trading is still very different than inflating profits. $500 million did not pass through the company's income statement to senior management - instead, insiders sold part or all of their stakes in the company.

But overinflated profits do not "go" to insiders. They go into net income, which if real, benefits all shareholders equally. If overinflated, well, that hurts all shareholders equally later on.

Adelphia had a whole other level of self-serving dealings going on. The allegations against Qwest are similar to those levied against WorldCom - and the WorldCom guys, although under investigation, have not been led away in handcuffs like Adelphia.

 

I hate worrying about stock prices and investigations at companies I don't even own stock in.

I hope St Phil is as saintly as we think he is. From everything I have been able to read, he is an honest, humble gentleman who would not willingly deceive people. But we've all been surprised before, lets just hope not now.

 

Someone clue me in on something I'm missing. Where is AEG in all this? Isn't that an Anschutz company, and isn't it separately owned? I have conclusions to draw, but figured I'd get my facts straight first.

 

AEG is seperate, as is most of Phil's other interests.

For another interesting article on telecom, BusinessWeek wrote one about an analyst named Grubman who talked Phil into hiring Nacchio. Grubman is also linked to Worldcom, Global Crossing, and most of the other telecom players.

 

If AEG is separate and owns all the teams, then what's the problem?

 

If Phillip Anschutz goes down, what will happen to AEG? That's the concern.

 

Won't AEG continue to exist without Anschutz? Isn't it a corporation that exists by virtue of its ability to generate revenues? Surely Anschutz could sell all his AEG stock and go to the slammer and AEG would still exist based on whether or not it earned revenues in excess of expenses? Not that I want that to happen, but someone convince me there's a direct correlation between Phil the person and AEG the company. . .

 

Well, again, who cares, as long as it wasn't invested as Qwest stock? Which it wasn't since he sold stock for cash. Is there really even a remote chance that (a) he'll have to give back any material portion of that $1.5 billion, and (b) AEG's corporate veil would be pierced to get it? Not in any scenario I can think of, but I'm stilling willing to listen to an explanation as to why Qwest's problems should matter to MLS.