Jorge Eduardo Ballesteros Franco, et al.

On May 8, 2001, the SEC filed a civil action, SEC v. Franco, et al., against a former member of Nalco Chemical Company’s board of directors and others in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in connection with alleged insider trading of the common stock of Nalco during June 1999.  The SEC brought additional civil actions in the same Court, SEC v. Cusi, et al. on February 7, 2002, and SEC v. Manzo, et al. on March 6, 2002, against several persons and entities for their roles in the same scheme.  According to final judgments entered between May 31, 2001 and October 29, 2002, defendants paid over $6.7 million in Franco, over $900,000 in Cusi, and over $650,000 in Manzo into the registry of the Court.

On June 10, 2010, the Court entered an Order establishing a Fair Fund and consolidating the three actions into Franco, for the purpose of a distribution, and appointed Richard Weissman, Esq. as the Distribution Agent of the Fair Fund.  On November 8, 2011, the Court approved an Amended Distribution Plan providing for a claims procedure to determine eligible claimants and a plan of distribution of the Fair Fund.  Eligible claimants are those persons who held shares of Nalco common stock as of June 17, 1999, and sold such shares on one or more specific dates of sale (June 18, 21, 22, 23, 24 or 25, 1999).

The Distribution Agent has mailed Proof of Claim forms and Supplemental Claim forms to known potential claimants.  All Proof of Claim forms must be returned to the Distribution Agent by the Claim Bar Date of April 13, 2012.  Failure to do so may cause the claim to be denied. 

On September 8, 2017, the Court entered an order approving the final accounting for the Fair Fund, terminating the Fair Fund and discharging the Distribution Agent. See the Court’s Order.