A New Twist In Options Backdating Litigation

According to news reports (Long Island Business News) an amended class action complaint filed against Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) in the options backdating litigation has added Lyons Benenson & Co., the company's compensation consultant, as a defendant.

According to the article, the amended complaint:

is believed to present the first case in the nation to accuse a compensation advisor of taking part in a backdating regime.

And alleges:

that Lyons Benenson & Co. attended meetings in which the backdated options were discussed.

The litigation is pending in the Commercial Division of Nassau County's (New York) Supreme Court before Judge Stephen Bucaria. An order consolidating the cases can be found here.

The Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana is lead plaintiff and Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. is lead counsel in the Cablevision litigation.

Cablevision has a host of options backdating issues to deal with, including the acknowledgement in this 10-Q that one of the company's backdated options grants:

related to an executive officer whose death occurred after the stated grant date of the award and before the actual grant date.

This is not the first time that Cablevision has graced these pages. Back in October, this post discussed the class action litigation related to the $7.9 billion leveraged-buyout offer made by the controlling Dolan family.

Update: The D&O Diary has a post on the Cablevision litigation, here.

Daily Trivia: The Long Island Business News is owned by Dolan Media Group, a Minneapolis based firm that owns legal or business journals in 21 markets. The company is led by President and CEO James P. Dolan who is apparently no relation to the Dolan family that controls Cablevision.