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SEC Sues Former Gemstar-TV Guide Execs
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Federal securities regulators on Thursday filed charges against Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:GMST - News) former chief executive and chief financial officer for allegedly causing the company to inflate revenues by at least $223 million

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (News - Websites) filed a civil lawsuit against former CEO Henry Yuen and former CFO Elsie Leung, seeking antifraud injunctions, civil penalties and the return of proceeds from stock sales, salaries and bonuses.

The suit also seeks to bar them from serving as officers or directors of a public company.

The SEC said in a statement Yuen and Leung caused the company to overstate revenues from March 2000 through September 2002.

"Everything that went down here was reviewed by auditors and attorneys," Stanley Arkin, an attorney for Yuen and Leung, told Reuters, arguing that they were not operating in a vacuum at the time of the alleged fraud.

Gemstar did not have an immediate comment on the SEC civil action.

The company replaced Yuen, its founder, as chief executive last October with Jeff Shell, a former executive of Gemstar's largest shareholder, News Corp. Ltd. (Australia:NCP.AX - News)