Ex-National Lampoon CEO Sentenced to Prison

Sept 8, 2010 - (Tip Report) Philadelphia - Former National Lampoon CEO, Daniel S. Laikin, 48, got a 45-month all-expense-paid luxury vacation at the expense of taxpayers Wednesday when a Philadelphia judge sentenced him to prison for his role in manipulating the company's stock.

The sentence came about as a part of plea deal Larkin made last year, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to manipulate the AMEX-listed shares of the company through a third-party, generating losses of between $2.5 to $7.5 million in the company's stock.

So much for stock touting, eh?

At the time of his trial, Laikin had come clean in his plan to dupe other National Lampoon executives in his business dealings with them.

Outside of his 3 3/4-year prison sentence, Laikin still faces civil penalties in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As to National Lampoon's American Stock Exchange listing... don't bother hunting for the ticker symbol, the Exchange delisted the stock shortly after the whole scheme unraveled.

In case your wondering about the stock promoters, according to SEC filings, the government named stock promoters, Eduardo Rodriguez, of Livingston, New Jersey and Tim Dougherty, of Webster, New York, and principal of OTC Advisors, Inc., a stock promotion company. Laikin's plan was to pump National Lampoon's share up over the $5 mark just below 2-bucks in order to maintain the stock's listing. But the scheme backfired after Laikin and another principal stockholder, Dennis S. Barsky, of Las Vegas, Nevada, paid $68,000 to Rodriguez and Dougherty who went about promoting the shares betwen March and June of 2008. As part of this scheme, Dougherty generated purchases of National Lampoon stock in exchange for a portion of the kickbacks. 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.