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United Health Group under formal investigation by Securities Exchange Commission

December 27, 2006

The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has formerly opened a case investigation into United Health Group Inc. (UHC). UHC is the 2^nd biggest health insurer in the United States of America. In fact, it is second only to Well Point Inc.

Yesterday, the health care insurance company stated that regulators on a federal level have started officially to investigate its past stock options practices. As you may have read on this debt free site already, this is certainly not the only company under fire for its past practices in stock options.

The formal order from the SEC is coming after it started to informally look into the health care insurance provider’s stock option handlings back in April of 2006. The health care giant is based in Minnesota. Obviously the company stated that it would be working in cooperation with the SEC during this formal look into the company’s stock option dealings from the past.
In fact, UHC’s in house investigation even found problems within its stock option dealings. It showed irregularities in its stock options accounting that adds up to a whopping price tag of  between $400 million to $1.7 billion to fix. UHC has already announced that it has to restate its company earnings all the way back to 1994 – over 12 years of earnings. The stock option scandal has already landed UHC’s  former  CEO and Chairman William McGuire out of a job.

When you take a look at other big stock options scandals that are in the works of being investigated by the SEC formerly and informally, you will tend to see the company leaders being fired as it is their ultimate responsibility to ensure fraudulent stock options are not taking place. These such issues can affect our economy, so it is important that all debt free life style consumers are paying attention to this news topic.

Due to the formal filing into an SEC investigation of Untied Health, the insurer’s New York Stock Exchange listed stock price slid 22 cents to close at $53.23 on the NYSE. Additionally, it continued to slid in the after market session to the tune of another 85 cents. Meaning it went to  to $52.38 a share then. We are certain that this irritates all of the investors in the health care insurer’s company for sure. Be sure to stay tuned as we will continue to cover this story when and if anymore details come to light.

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