Guilty! Former Take-Two Boss Cops a Plea on Stock Option Charges

February 14, 2007

Reuters is reporting that former Take-Two CEO Ryan Brant entered a guilty plea today on charges that he manipulated stock options.

Brant will pay $7.3 million to settle cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Manhattan District Attorney's office. In a statement, Brant said:

I am deeply sorry for my role in the inappropriate manner Take-Two granted incentive stock options. I accept responsibility for my actions, and apologize to the company's shareholders.

Business Week has more, including word that Brant, who could have received a four-year prison sentence for his crimes, will likely receive probation when he is sentenced in August.

Last month Take-Two announced the results of an internal investigation which revealed that Brant, who left the company in October, had manipulated options.

GamePolitics has learned that the Manhattan D.A. will be holding a press conference at noon today. More details should be forthcoming at that time.

Posted in Court Cases People Video Game Industry/Economics

Comments

Submitted by Haunted (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 12:57.

Well, I haven't paid too much attention to any news on this front from Take-Two, but man, this is really not what they needed. They'd just seen a small improvement of their stock. /cry Take-Two.

Submitted by Brokenscope (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 13:04.

Well at least he admitted to it an saved a bunch of people sometime.

Submitted by GoodRobotUs (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 13:23.

Well, this has been coming for quite a while, Rock* is a multi-million dollar corp, unfortunately, when you get to that kind of value, you will always get one or two leeches, be they inside the company using paperwork or outside the company using other methods.

Mostly, it's the Shareholders who will suffer, not a good PR situation for R*, but then they seem to surf the opinion envelope anyway, so I don't see it hurting them in the long term to be honest, it's not as if they are the first ever company to have it's management caught dabbling.

Submitted by Terminator44 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 14:42.

I looked at the headline, and I imagined Phoenix Wright weeping, knowing he has failed his client.

Submitted by DoggySpew (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 16:44.

@GoodRobot

Rockstar has got nothing to do with it. It is Take Two that got those problems. Rockstar just makes the games, Take Two is the publisher.

Submitted by GoodRobotUs (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 17:13.

Sorry, too used to saying Rock*, my mistake. It's right there in the article too :-/

I meant Take 2 :)

Submitted by PyroHazard (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 18:58.

In the distance, you can hear a nasally-sounding laughing made by a certain enemy of Take2 Interactive...

Least they are cleaning house.

Submitted by hayabusa75 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 20:27.

Regrettable, but this isn't the kind of thing that will make me (or anyone else, I'd guess) stop buying their games.

Submitted by Mysticgamer (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 20:56.

Watch JT try to claim credit for this too.

Submitted by kurisu7885 (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 21:20.

Let's hope Take Star, I mean Take Two recovers, as they probably will.

Submitted by Take-Two Investor (not verified) on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 22:19.

Take-Two stock (TTWO) soared on the news today, that means all their troubles are behind them and does not affect current management or studios, just some former executive.

Submitted by aefjjjjjj (not verified) on Fri, 11/09/2007 - 23:57.

http://www.feelingame.com

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: That article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

All shouts

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