Securities & Exchange Commission v. Apuzzo

8 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2014 WL 1284906, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42751
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedMarch 31, 2014
DocketCivil No. 3:07CV1910(AWT)
StatusPublished

This text of 8 F. Supp. 3d 178 (Securities & Exchange Commission v. Apuzzo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Securities & Exchange Commission v. Apuzzo, 8 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2014 WL 1284906, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42751 (D. Conn. 2014).

Opinion

[180]*180 RULING ON MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ALVIN W. THOMPSON, District Judge.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) brings this action pursuant to §§ 21(d) and 21(e) of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78u(d) and (e), against Joseph F. Apuzzo (“Apuzzo”), the former chief financial officer of Terex Corporation (“Terex”), alleging that he aided and abetted a fraudulent accounting scheme involving two sale-leaseback transactions and carried out between 2000 and 2002 by United Rentals, Inc. (“URI”) and its former chief financial officer Michael J. Nolan (“Nolan”) and others. Apuzzo has moved for partial summary judgment with respect to the equitable remedies sought by the SEC. For the reasons set forth below, the motion is being denied.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

For the purposes of this motion, Apuzzo “asks the Court to accept as true all of the SEC’s allegations against him, specifically that he signed the 2000 and 2001 remark-eting agreements and the 2002 close-out agreement knowing that URI intended to book or had booked the two transactions improperly.” (Reply Mem. (Doe. No. 89) at 1).

Terex manufactures equipment primarily for the construction, infrastructure, and surface to mining industries. Apuzzo was the chief financial officer of Terex from October 1998 to September 2002, when he left the company to become president of Terex Financial Services, a division of Te-rex. He was president of Terex Financial Services until August 2005. Apuzzo was a licensed CPA during part of the time that he worked at Terex, has an MBA in Public Accounting, and had previously worked at a public accounting firm.

URI is one of the largest equipment-rental companies in the world. During the relevant time period, URI regularly purchased equipment from Terex and rented it to other companies. Nolan was URI’s chief financial officer from its inception in September 1997 until December 2002.

Terex I

In the later part of 2000, Nolan contacted General Electric Capital Corporation (“GECC”), the financing arm of General Electric, about a minor sale-leaseback transaction. Unlike a traditional sale-leaseback which would require URI to amortize profit, the minor sale lease-back would allow URI to record an immediate gain. GECC advised Nolan that it would not enter into a sale-leaseback transaction with URI unless a third party agreed to remarket the equipment at the end of the lease period and to provide a guarantee with respect to the residual value of the equipment. The third party would also be required to purchase, at the guaranteed residual values, any equipment that remained unsold at the end of the remarket-ing agreement. Because GECC had an existing relationship with Terex, GECC suggested that Terex act as the guarantor.

Nolan and others initiated discussions with Terex, which was one of URLs vendors, and Apuzzo was asked to oversee the negotiations on Terex’s behalf. Nolan explained the terms of the proposed transaction to Apuzzo, who expressed a willingness to participate as long as URI (1) agreed to indemnify Terex with respect to any losses Terex might incur as a result of providing a residual value guarantee to GECC, and (2) made additional new equipment purchases from Terex in the current fiscal year in order to boost Terex’s year-end financial results.

On December 29, 2000, URI and GECC entered into a Master Lease Agreement [181]*181pursuant to which URI sold used Terex equipment to GECC for $25 million, and GECC leased the equipment back to URI for eight months. The same day, GECC entered into a Remarketing Agreement pursuant to which Terex agreed to re-market the used equipment at the end of the lease period and to pay for any shortfall between the residual value guarantee (96% of GECC’s purchase price) and the proceeds that were generated by the resale of the equipment. URI and Terex also entered into a an agreement under which URI agreed to purchase from Terex approximately $20 million of new equipment before the end of the 2000 calendar year, and to pay Terex approximately $5 million immediately to cover Terex’s anticipated losses on account of the residual value guarantee. In accordance with the agreement between Apuzzo, Nolan and others, URI and Terex also executed a “backup” remarketing agreement, which Apuzzo also signed on behalf of Terex, under which URI effectively assumed Te-rex’s remarketing obligations and residual value guarantee to GECC and agreed to cover any losses to Terex exceeding the $5 million advance payment by means of guaranteed future purchases.

Apuzzo sent Nolan an initial draft of the proposed backup remarketing agreement. That initial draft explicitly described Te-rex’s residual value guarantee to GECC. It also recited URI’s agreement to remarket the equipment as well as indemnify Terex for any losses it incurred as a result of the residual value guarantee. However, in response to Apuzzo’s initial draft of the backup remarketing agreement, Nolan and others sent Apuzzo a revised draft that deleted all explicit references to GECC and to URI’s agreement to remarket the equipment. Instead, URI’s revised draft referred to URI’s obligation to remarket equipment which is typically in United Rentals rental fleet and is then owned by a leasing company “which is not less than investment grade, and is required to be remarketed by Terex from such leasing company for a period commencing in August, 2001.” (Comply 21). Nowhere in URI’s revised draft was there any language identifying the leasing company or mentioning the fact that the equipment to be remarketed was equipment URI had sold to GECC. Instead of referring to the residual value guarantee from Terex to GECC, URI’s revised draft referred to URI’s guarantee to pay Terex “the total cost incurred or that would be incurred by Terex to purchase such equipment....” Id.

Before committing Terex to the residual value guarantee, Apuzzo obtained an internal appraisal of the used equipment URI was selling to GECC. Based on that appraisal, Apuzzo knew that Terex’s agreement to guarantee GECC at least 96% of the valuation URI had placed on the equipment would likely cause Terex to incur substantial losses when the equipment was resold. Consequently, Apuzzo insisted that URI agree to indemnify Terex against any such loss. When Apuzzo signed the remarketing agreement, he understood that, although it would likely result in millions of dollars in losses to Terex for which Terex expected to be indemnified by URI, URI’s commitment to indemnify Terex for such losses was set forth in a separate document that failed to make any explicit reference to the remarketing agreement, the residual value guarantee, or even the transaction to which it related.

URI agreed to purchase $20 million of new equipment from Terex and to pay Terex before year-end 2000 if the equipment could be delivered in 2001 rather than immediately. Apuzzo agreed to this and, in addition, provided assurances to Nolan and others that URI could substitute different equipment if necessary, or [182]*182otherwise return equipment for full credit if URI subsequently determined that it did not need the equipment. Because Terex was unable to deliver the new equipment to URI before December 31, 2000, Terex could immediately recognize the revenue from the sale to URI if the transaction complied with “bill and hold” accounting guidance.

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Bluebook (online)
8 F. Supp. 3d 178, 2014 WL 1284906, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42751, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/securities-exchange-commission-v-apuzzo-ctd-2014.