NEW YORK (AP) — A day after he was fined $480,000 by the FTC, media mogul Barry Diller issued a statement saying he gained no advantage and did no harm to Coca-Cola shareholders when he did not submit the required filings after buying voting shares in the drinks company.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that Diller bought 120,000 shares of Coca-Cola Co. in November 2010, 605,000 shares on April 26, 2012, and 264,000 more on April 27 — but did not submit the required filings to the FTC and the Justice Department under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. He later made corrective filings.
Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said Wednesday that he was "not made aware of the necessity to file, and the moment I became aware, I filed promptly and complied with all regulations — the only infraction was in the timing."
"While I am surely not suffering, one can fairly question the tactics used by the FTC in penalizing individuals for de minimis open market share purchases and inadvertent paper shuffling," the statement continued.
"De minimis" is a Latin expression meaning minimal or insignificant.