Former L90 Executive Indicted

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A former executive of Internet ad firm L90 has been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges he fraudulently booked revenues to boost the company’s performance.


Keith Jon Kaplan, former senior vice president and chief of sales for the Internet advertising firm, which had been based in Marina del Rey before merging with a unit of Doubleclick and changing its name to MaxWorldwide in 2002, was charged with three counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and falsifying books and records. He faces a maximum of 25 years in federal prison and is expected to be arraigned on Feb. 22.

Kaplan is alleged to have conspired with two other former executives to inflate revenues to meet analysts’ fourth quarter 2000 projections, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California. In one example, he is alleged to have offered the founder of a failing Internet company $500,000 worth of free advertising and recording $546,000 in advertising revenue in fourth quarter 2000, which allowed L90 to meet analysts’ estimates.


The other executives, John Bohan, L90’s former chief executive and president, and Lucrezia Bickerton, its former vice president of finance, already have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Two other executives have pleaded guilty to similar charges as part of the L90 investigation, lead by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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