The former chief executive of Xinhua Finance, a former media company which controlled a number of independent research properties, signed a plea deal with prosecutors to settle charges of a series of undisclosed self-dealing transactions that netted US$50 million. The plea deal signed by Loretta Fredy Bush resulted in a single charge of conspiring to obstruct the United States Internal Revenue Service.
Bush was indicted in May 2011 along with two other company directors for allegedly using various entities to hide the sale of company shares from the Securities and Exchange Commission and investors, and to engage in insider trading. They were also accused of manipulating the company’s balance sheet to avoid impairment charges.
Xinhua Finance at various points controlled proxy service Glass Lewis, policy research firm Washington Analysis, policy firm G7 Group, data provider Mergent which included Ford Equity Research, economic research firm Stone McCarthy, and Market News International, among other properties.
Xinhua suffered media scrutiny of its questionable transactions in 2007, and began divesting its properties in 2007 and 2008.