The last year has been a touch stretch for Notre Dame’s famous underdog, Rudy. Last fall his teammate Joe Montana laughed off the movie’s storyline, and now this in today’s WSJ:
..in a settlement announced on Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission casts Mr. Ruettiger in a far less heroic light—as a key participant in a so-called pump-and-dump stock scheme that generated more than $11 million in allegedly illicit profits for a now-defunct beverage company, Rudy Nutrition.
Yeesh:
..the SEC charged that Mr. Ruettiger and 12 others made false and misleading statements about their company in news releases, SEC filings and promotional materials during 2008 in a scheme to lure investors, inflate the stock price and then sell their shares at a profit.
For instance, a letter to potential investors falsely claimed that in "a major southwest test, Rudy outsold Gatorade 2 to 1!" the SEC said in its complaint.
A Google search yielded this 2008 press release pumping the product with a few gems:
- “It is clinically shown to decrease the formation of certain bacterias and plaques in the mouth.”
- “Rudy is not in competition with many of the other beverages in the store or vending machines currently. The drink is in a class of its own “the new age beverage” category.”
- My favorite: “It’s the little guy rising to the top all over again.”
