BetzDearborn Inc. Insider Trading Distribution Fund

On May 6, 2004, the Honorable Denny Chin, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, entered an Order approving the BetzDearborn Inc. Distribution Plan. The Plan sets forth the process for the distribution of funds disgorged by settling defendants who engaged in alleged illegal insider trading in the securities of BetzDearborn before it was publicly announced on July 30, 1998, that Hercules Inc. was to acquire BetzDearborn. The SEC settled the five different cases it filed, and they have been consolidated for purposes of administration of the Plan. The SEC has posted numerous litigation releases on the cases. You can find them by visiting the SEC’s website and inserting “BetzDearborn” in our search engine.

Judge Chin appointed Ralph M. Stone, Esq., as Plan Administrator, to distribute the approximately $1,771,812 collected by the SEC from the defendants. Persons eligible to file claims with the Plan Administrator are those persons who sold BelzDearborn:

• Common stock on June 30, July 1, July 8, July 14, July 17, July 23, July 28, and July 29, 1998; 
 
 
• August 40 call option contracts on July 9, July 28, and July 29, 1998;
 
 
• August 45 call option contracts on July 17, July 22, and July 24, 1998;
 
 
• October 45 call option contracts on July 15 and July 21, 1998; and/or
 
 
• October 50 call option contracts on July 9, 1998.

The deadline for the filing of claims was March 14, 2005. On October 2, 2006, the Court ordered that the funds collected be distributed to eligible claimants. In addition, the Court ordered that no claim could participate in the distribution if it had been submitted after August 31, 2006. For more information, you can contact the Plan Administrator’s legal assistant, Stefanie Weisman, at (212) 239-4340, ext. 21.

http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/claims/betzdearborn.htm