The The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement has prepared the Plan of Distribution (the “Plan”) pursuant to Rule 1101 of the Commission’s Rules on Fair Fund and Disgorgement Plans (“Commission’s Rules”), 17 C.F.R. § 201.1101. The Plan proposes for the distribution of the funds collected from Bankrate, Inc. (“Bankrate”) and Hyunjin Lerner, CPA (“Lerner”) in the above-referenced matters, as well as funds received in a related district court proceeding.
On September 8, 2015, in two related settled administrative proceedings the Commission issued separate orders (collectively, the “Orders”), against Bankrate and Lerner (collectively, the “Respondents”) finding that they violated the federal securities laws. The Commission’s Orders arose out of substantially similar facts and occurred within a subset of the time period as the violations alleged in a related class action (the “Class Action”). In the Orders, the Commission found that, during the second quarter of 2012, Bankrate, through its chief financial officer, Edward DiMaria (“DiMaria”), vice president and director of accounting, Matthew Gamsey (“Gamsey”), and vice president of finance, Lerner, intentionally manipulated its financial results to meet and/or exceed analyst consensus estimates for key financial metrics. As a result of the manipulation, Bankrate materially overstated its financial results for the second quarter of 2012.