Former billionaire caught in the long tail of dot-bomb securities fraud
Former CEO of PurchasePro Charles Johnson is facing 20 years in jail for his role in stock fraud at the company. An earlier prosecution of Johnson ended in mistrial, but this retrial included the original allegations plus an obstruction of justice charge related to the first effort. The Las Vegas-based PurchasePro sold enterprise software for business-to-business transactions online. PurchasePro executives worked closely with AOL dealmakers, who were implicated in the scheme to manufacture positive sales numbers in 2001 in order to puff up PurchasePro's once-astronomical stock price. AOL cut a deal earlier to defer prosecution. Other executives at PurchasePro had already plead guilty. PurchasePro went bankrupt in 2002, and the assets were scooped up by Perfect Commerce.