The charges allege that CEO Daniel Laikin and three other people paid kickbacks to a stock promoter to pump up National Lampoon stock.

The SEC is asking the court for an order immediately barring the company and Laikin from similar misconduct in the future, and is seeking to impose an unspecified fine.

Acting United States Attorney Laurie Magid said in a release that the Justice Department today was unsealing three indictments and information charging seven individuals with conspiracy and securities fraud. The charges pertain to four separate schemes designed to artificially inflate the prices of National Lampoon.

According to the release:

According to the charges, between March and June 2008, National Lampoon CEO Daniel Laikin conspired with Dennis Barsky, who is listed on National Lampoon SEC filings as a “consultant,” to pay others, including Eduardo Rodriguez and the CW, to artificially inflate the price of National Lampoon stock. Rodriguez enlisted Tim Dougherty, a Rochester, New York stock promoter, to assist in the scheme. Dougherty was paid approximately $40,000 to make purchases in National Lampoon stock with the objective of driving up the share price. Dougherty made his purchases over the course of a number of days and used various accounts to give the false impression of a steady demand for the stock.

Laikin told Rodriguez and the CW that he wanted the stock price to increase from approximately $2 per share to $5 per share to make it more attractive for “strategic partnerships” and “acquisitions.” In addition to paying others to purchase the stock, Laikin shared confidential financial information regarding the stock, non-public news releases, and confidential shareholder lists, and coordinated the release of news with the illegal purchases in the stock. Barsky helped direct the purchases and facilitated the kickback payments.

Replace the word holiday with penitentiary in the song Holiday Road for best effect.

Not a joke: National Lampoon Execs charged over stock scam is a post from: The Inquisitr

National Lampoon has acquired JerkassClothing.com, an online seller of trendy and funny t-shirts.

National Lampoon said it would use the acquisition, its first foray into ecommerce as part of a new push into branded apparel and merchandise using it brand to leverage merchandise sales worldwide.

The Jerkass Clothing Company was founded in 2005 is based run by Milwaukee based Richard Lorbach. The company started with local sales before extending into an online business. Jerkass currently produces over 100 designs in styles including “Coast to Coast State Slogans,” “Too Cool For School,” and “Vintage Tavern Tees.” They will now create a new line for National Lampoon themed merchandise.

Previous National Lampoon acquisitions include DrunkUniversity.com, CollegeHangover.com, Comedy Express, AllModelZone.com and ZingFu.com.

Price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

National Lampoon acquires JerkassClothing.com is a post from: The Inquisitr

Online Laughs

On the productive side, National Lampoon — the company behind “Animal House” and the other classic movies — has bought the Web site BarackObamaJokes.com and is adding it into its arsenal of comedy sites. National Lampoon isn’t saying how much it paid for the domain and content.

The company describes its vision for BarackObamaJokes.com as being a blog-type of setup that will focus on “aggregating political jokes and videos” about Obama and politics in general. It also indicated more site acquisitions are likely to follow in the coming months. “We are always on the lookout for funny, compelling, and entertaining sites and content,” CEO Daniel Laikin says.

Online Attacks

On the darker end of the spectrum, two separate security firms are reporting a sudden jump in Obama-related malware following Tuesday night’s win. Sophos goes as far as to say 60 percent of the e-mailed viruses coming into its labs today had something to do with Obama’s name or image.

Most of the messages appear to be standard spam types of attacks, presenting realistic-looking links to Obama information or videos that end up installing Trojans on your system. It’s no surprise — certainly these types of attacks pop up with names of people in the news at any given time — but it’s a warning worth passing on, particularly to family who might be less computer-savvy and more apt to fall into the trap.

Obama Victory Inspires New National Lampoon Site, Spam Attacks is a post from: The Inquisitr