Dan Laikin

Daniel S. "Dan" Laikin (born 1962) is an American business executive. He served as Chief Operating Officer of National Lampoon, Incorporated from 2002 to 2005. He resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company on December 17, 2008 in the wake of a securities fraud investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Laikin was appointed by Tim Durham as director of Fair Finance, a consumer-loan company, from 2006 to 2009. The Ponzi scheme involving Fair Finance was the largest white collar crime case in Indiana history at the time of prosecution.^[1]

Life and career

Laikin served as co-chairman of Indiana-based real estate development company Biltmore Homes, Inc., until 2000. He also served as a managing partner of technology investment firm Four Leaf Partners, LLC. In 2001, Laikin's group moved to buy a majority stake in J2 Communications Inc., the owner of the National Lampoon properties.^[2]

Laikin is brother to BrightPoint CEO Bob Laikin, whose company was managed Obsidian Enterprises, a company owned by Tim Durham. Durham appointed Laikin to Obsidian's board. Laikin owned about 40% of National Lampoon, Incorporated's stock. The SEC alleged Laikin conspired to inflate the company's stock price to $5 in order to prevent the company from being delisted from the American Stock Exchange.^[3] Durham took over as Lampoon CEO after Laikin stepped down.

Laikin alerted authorities to Durham's financial schemes in hopes of getting a reduced sentence. Durham was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2012 for a Ponzi scheme related to Lampoon's holding company, Obsidian Enterprises.^[4]

In 2009 Laikin pled guilty and was sentenced in 2010 to 45 months in prison.^[5] Laikin was sued for $19 million in 2010 by the court-appointed trustee for Fair Finance, whose assets were used to prop up the Ponzi scheme devised by Durham.^[6]

References