AOL investigated for "round trip" trades-WSJ
Reuters | at | by Mike
Federal prosecutors and Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers are reviewing transactions crafted by AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Under review are those transactions where America Online's deal makers appear to have used a practice known as "round-tripping," or a related practice of "back-to-back" transactions, according to people familiar with the investigations. Round-tripping was used to describe practices in the energy and telecom business where a company would sell an unused asset to another company while at the same time agreeing to buy back the same or similar assets at about the same price.
AOL could not be reached for comment.