NEW YORK (AP) The burgeoning insider-trading scandalsurrounding Business Week came home to haunt the magazine's owneditorial offices Friday, after repeated assertions that itsemployees were not involved.
Business Week announced it fired its broadcast editor forviolating the magazine's written code of ethics and possibly tradingon advance knowledge of stocks mentioned in issues before they werereleased to the public.
S.G. "Rudy" Ruderman, who had broadcast market and business newsfor Business Week since 1981, failed to disclose "all the (stock)trades he made and the full extent of his holdings" in accordancewith the ethics code, said spokeswoman Mary McGeachy, reading from astatement.
McGraw-Hill Inc., Business Week's publisher, learned lateThursday from the New York Stock Exchange's surveillance unit thatRuderman might have made four or five trades in 1988 involving stocksmentioned in the magazine's "Inside Wall Street" column, McGeachysaid.
Shock reverberated through the magazine's editorial offices,where Ruderman shared quarters until he was confronted by McGraw-Hilland magazine officials when he arrived for work Friday. He wasdismissed shortly after the meeting.
"It's deeply disturbing," said Managing Editor John Dierdorff."I fervently hope this distressing incident is the end of it," but hesaid the magazine's own investigation was continuing.
Ruderman's firing came a day after the first criminal charge wasfiled in the scandal. A stockbroker who had been fired by MerrillLynch & Co. for suspcious trades was charged with mail fraudThursday, and his lawyer said he would plead guilty.
Seven employees of Business Week's printer also have lost theirjobs, as have two brokers at two other investment firms.
Ruderman, 62, did not report, write or edit stories for BusinessWeek. But he broadcast a business news report several times a dayfrom the magazine's office in midtown Manhattan to radio stations inNew York, Boston, Philadelphia and Fort Wayne, Ind. - all except FortWayne are Group W.
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