Litigation

Goldman Sachs says lying by executives is trivial

By Tracy Coenen

This week, Gregory Probert, Herbalife’s (NYSE:HLF) president and COO, resigned after being outed for lying about his credentials.

Here’s what an analyst at Goldman Sachs had to say about the company after the resignation was announced:

IMPLICATIONS: We believe that this significant EPS outperformance will largely overshadow the disappointing resignation of Greg Probert and would expect the shares to rally today, especially given how weak they have been of late. We viewed Mr. Probert as an integral part of the Herbalife management team as he was a strong strategic thinker and tactical executor of the business plan. Herbalife is clearly taking the highest ethical road in this matter, which is commendable, but it is unfortunate since Mr. Probert?s misstatement was somewhat benign and trivial at this stage of his career. All things considered, a management transition could not be happening at a better time. Momentum is currently strong across Herbalife?s regions, Mexico has stabilized, and the Nutrition Club concept is flourishing. In addition, many of Mr. Probert?s responsibilities will be assumed by Des Walsh, a highly capable and energetic current head of sales who is extremely well regarded among Herbalife?s distributor population. Our price target is unchanged.

So… The company is good, who cares that he lied! Well it really does matter, even if it was about something seemingly trivial. The fact remains that lying is not compartmentalized. It doesn’t just stop with this one “trivial” lie. This lie speaks to the character of the individual and the management team. And indeed, there are many troubling things going on at Herbalife that may signal fraud.

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Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on May 03, 2008 (boomark / email).