Premiere's Kofler accused of subscriber fraud
May 22, 2009
Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger (SdK), a German shareholders interest group has taken the former CEOs of German pay-TV platform Premiere to court over allegations of investment fraud and insider trading.
SdK has brought a case against former CEOs Georg Kofler and Michael Börnicke in a Munich court, claiming the pair falsified subscriber numbers on two occasions. Premiere revised its subscriber numbers down in October last year,18 months after Kofler had sold shares worth E185 million and announced his decision to step down from the firm. Around the same time Börnicke sold shares worth E6 million.
SdK claims the pair, plus other senior managers, provided false information at the time of Premiere’s 2007 recapitalisation and also accuses them of insider trading. The subscriber numbers were revised down almost a million from 3.4 million only after the current CEO Mark Williams had joined.