sokol

Mr. Sokol told Mr. Buffett that he had not hoped to be Mr. Buffett's successor, and was resigning for reasons unrelated to those trades.

Mr. Sokol told him Lubrizol was undervalued and might be a good match for Berkshire, a person familiar with the matter says.

In a story line that mirrors Buffett's, Sokol grew up in Omaha, Neb. , delivered newspapers as a child and worked at a small grocery store.

Sokol's high-profile attorney disputed the board's report and said his client is "a man of uncommon rectitude and probity. "

When Buffett made that announcement, he said he believed Sokol had not done anything unlawful.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Mr Sokol's trading, according to a person familiar with the matter.

He said he didn't ask Mr. Sokol for his resignation and said it came 'as a surprise' to him.

That was when they learned Mr. Sokol bought about $10 million in shares around a week before he recommended the company as an acquisition.

Sokol: NetJets Co-Founder Jim Jacobs said Sokols cost cutting has cost the company customers and left it a ? tiny shadow of what it was.

The Berkshire board said it was still considering legal action against Sokol to, among other things, recover any trading profits he made.

He said the unit was on the mend with his appointment of David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. , to its helm.

Prof. Edwards said the ideal message to Mr. Sokol would have been, 'You could either liquidate your position, or we don't do a deal. '

Sokol began to raise concerns and received late-night phone calls warning him to stop.

The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Sokol, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

But why would Mr. Buffett now go out of his way to whitewash Mr. Sokol's departure?

Speaking on CNBC on Thursday, Mr Sokol insisted he had not been party to any "inside information" when buying the Lubrizol shares.

In the statement, in which Mr. Buffett announced Mr. Sokol's resignation, Mr. Buffett said he believed the stock purchases weren't unlawful.

It later transpired that Mr Sokol had traded in and out of Lubrizol shares in the weeks before coming to his boss with the idea.

Mr. Sokol has said he believes he did nothing wrong and the trades weren't a factor in his decision to resign.

Buffett said Wednesday that David Sokol's resignation letter, delivered by his assistant late Monday, came as a "total surprise. "

Mr Sokol traded shares in Lubrizol, a speciality chemicals maker, before he suggested that Berkshire buy the company.

Let's also defer the question of whether Mr. Sokol may have engaged in insider trading.

Sokol did not immediately respond to a message left Wednesday.

The Sokol affair goes to the heart of governance concerns at Hathaway, where you dominate a board that includes friends and family members.

In Wednesday's statement, Berkshire said Sokol reiterated as much to Buffett before Buffett announced Sokol's resignation.

Mr. Sokol himself told The Wall Street Journal that his resignation had 'absolutely nothing' to do with the Lubrizol situation.

A report from the company's audit committee said Wednesday that David Sokol broke company trading rules and lied to CEO Warren Buffett.

Mr. Sokol has said he believes he did nothing wrong in making the trades and they weren't a factor in his decision to resign.

In that statement, he praised Mr. Sokol for his 'extraordinary' contribution to the company.

Mr. Buffett called Mr. Munger and told him of the pitch, and mentioned that Mr. Sokol held Lubrizol stock, the person says.

Already, doubters have emerged who believe Mr. Sokol won't be able to pull off the deals Mr. Buffett has.

He said Berkshire had turned over 'some very damning evidence, in my view' about Mr. Sokol's trades to the SEC.

' He said in his statement Wednesday that he didn't ask Mr. Sokol for more information on the trades when the issue first came up.

Li didn't leave the running as dramatically as Sokol, but instead, he never started working at Berkshire.

There is no question that what Mr Sokol did was unwise, whether or not it was insider trading under US law.

Sokol in the early 1990s helped buy a geothermal business and turned it into a sprawling utility company.

Mr. Sokol, after discussing the deal with Messrs. Buffett and Abel, decided to make an offer.

Yet Sokol, in his one public appearance since the scandal broke, told CNBC he had no aspiration to the job.

Except for that deletion, Mr. Sokol concurred in the accuracy of the press release.

Mr Sokol still does not appear to think he did anything wrong, which makes me think he has been flying too high.

I found Sokol to be a brilliant executive, a company builder who gets results.

"I think Mr. Sokol has a real problem here, " said Duke University Law Professor James Cox. "This is not a close call at all. "

Dave Sokol and Greg Abel, the managers of this operation, have achieved results unmatched elsewhere in the utility industry.

For now, Mr. Sokol is expected to focus on NetJets, one of Mr. Buffett's poorer performing investments.

Mr. Buffett says he learned the extent of Mr. Sokol's holdings 'shortly before' he left for a trip to Asia on March 19.

This comment established Sokol as off his rocker, but the bigger news was to come.

During the financial crisis, when Mr. Buffett profited greatly from investments in struggling companies, Mr. Sokol tried to do the same.

Mr. Sokol recounted the trades to him over the phone and gave the same information to an outside attorney for Berkshire. Mr.

Leave aside the obvious point that Mr. Sokol might not have lived up to Berkshire's high ethical standards.

Buffett said he doesn't believe those stock purchases were illegal, and didn't ask Sokol to resign.

Legal experts said Sokol appears to be in more trouble now than was first thought.

In my view, Mr. Sokol should have been fired for the simple reason that he violated Mr. Buffett's 'front page' standard.

The lawyer said no new information had emerged since Mr. Buffett's earlier statement praising Mr. Sokol's 'extraordinary' contributions.

'You could be fired if you don't interrupt him, ' Mr. Sokol said.

He told the secretary to go into the room with a piece of paper containing two words: David Sokol.

For one: It's still unclear if there will be an investigation into David Sokol, the former Buffett heir apparent who quit in March.

Messrs. Buffett, Munger, Sokol, Li and Microsoft founder and Berkshire Director Bill Gates plan to visit China and BYD in September.

Mr. Sokol and the other MidAmerican managers proved to be tough bargainers. Mr.

But how could Mr. Buffett, universally regarded as a beacon of integrity, have let Mr. Sokol's unusual trading occur unchecked?

Such speculation shot higher after Mr. Buffett appointed Mr. Sokol to take over flagging jet-rental company NetJets Inc.

Mr. Sokol is a tireless worker, coming into the office at 6 o'clock in the morning and rarely vacationing.

Mr. Sokol declined to comment, and Mr. Buffett declined to comment about his choice of successor.

Sokol dropped plans to become a doctor after he fainted when he first saw a cadaver.

Sokol: He swooped in to save utility Constellation Energy from the brink of bankruptcy.

Mr Sokol's blunder ought to make 80-year-old Mr Buffett address his own failure.

Was the conflict of interest all Mr Sokol's fault?

A war of words between Mr. Buffett and the former top aide, David Sokol, heated up over the weekend.

Mr. Sokol also left unchanged Mr. Buffett's statement that he had "held back nothing in this press release. "

Sokol slashed debt and costs and dropped free uses of airplanes for celebrities or employees' friends.

But Mr Sokol was a frontrunner to succeed you as chief executive.

Even in the March 30 statement announcing Mr Sokol's resignation, you described his contributions as "extraordinary" .

The committee report contained 'errors and omissions, ' Mr. Sokol's lawyer said.

The report says the first Buffett heard of Sokol's stock purchases was through, gasp, an investment banker.

"I joined a chess club and lost to an eight-year girl, " Sokol told Discovery News.

Berkshire didn't respond to requests for comment, and Mr. Sokol declined to comment for this column.

Mr Sokol resigned, and Mr Buffett apologised to shareholders.

Shortly after that meeting, Sokol made his first buys of Lubrizol shares.

Sokol made a profit of about $3 million -- a gain that could be at risk.

Neither Mr. Sokol nor Mr. Buffett responded to requests for comment.

Some investors expressed concerns about Mr Sokol's actions.

After he returned, he received a resignation letter from Mr. Sokol.

Mr. Buffett added that he believed Mr. Sokol's purchases weren't unlawful.

The change also shines the spotlight more brightly on the man who one day could run this empire, David Sokol.

Mr. Sokol went to China and when he returned, he and Mr. Munger convinced Mr. Buffett to load up on BYD.

Mr Sokol's lawyer denies he violated Berkshire policies.

He did say in the March statement that he didn't discourage Mr. Sokol from resigning.

The report paints a picture of Buffett as having been duped by Sokol.

Until we know the answers to these types of questions, we won't know whether Sokol engaged in any kind of illegal activity.

"The market is ready, I think, for electric vehicles, " said Sokol.

Mr. Sokol, who held a seat on BYD's board, hasn't yet been replaced, a BYD spokeswoman said.

Mr Sokol told you he owned Lubrizol stock.

Sokol's stock position until he quit this week, saying he wanted to focus on investing his family's money.

We are not far away from now to have a new CEO. How do you make sure that someone in line will not act like Sokol?

It is unclear whether Mr. Sokol's actions would fall under the policy.

Berkshire later agreed to buy Lubrizol, triggering a $3 million gain in Mr. Sokol's trading position.

Mr. Buffett wrote in his letter to shareholders Saturday that he 'can't overstate the breadth and importance' of Mr. Sokol's achievements.

Mr. Li took himself out of the running last year, and Mr. Sokol resigned earlier this year.

Based on what is known now, Mr. Sokol may have violated these policies.

1. How serious is the Dave Sokol affair?

Buffett said in a statement Wednesday that he saw no legal problem with Sokol's purchase of those shares. [New York Times]