Guidant Executives Sued for Securities Fraud

Those hits just keep on coming for Guidant Corp. The Indianapolis Star reported that Guidant and six of its top executives were named as defendants in a securities fraud lawsuit. The suit charges that the executives "concealed long-standing, life-threatening defects" in its products to prop up its stock price prior to the company's proposed merger with Johnson & Johnson. The suit alleges that the six executives, including Guidant Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ronald W. Dollens, sold Guidant stock worth $39.5 million this year prior to the publication of the first news article by the NY Times about problems with Guidant's implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs).