ICAHN SAYS HE IS TARGET OF SEC INVESTIGATION
Corporate raider Carl Icahn
acknowledged that he is one of the targets of an investigation
by the Securities and Exchange Commission into possible
violations of securities laws.
    Icahn, who heads and controls Trans World Airlines Inc
<TWA>, made the acknowledgement in a filing TWA was required to
make with the SEC disclosing its 14.8 pct stake in USAir Group.
    The SEC issued a formal order launching the private
investigation on Nov 12, 1986, Icahn said in the SEC filing.
    The order empowers SEC investigators to try to find out
whether any persons, including Icahn, violated securities laws
and related rules, Icahn said.
    Specifically, the probe is examining the acquisition and
subsequent sale of more than five pct of the stock of certain
unspecified companies, he said.
    Federal law requires individuals or groups of individuals
who have made shareholder agreements, to disclose stakes in
companies of at least five pct within 10 days.
    Icahn has acknowledged that he has been subpoenaed in
connection with SEC probes, but this is the first time he has
disclosed that he is among those being investigated.
    By making the disclosure in a filing with the SEC, which is
obviously already aware of its own probe, Icahn was also
alerting current and potential shareholders of TWA.
    It is not uncommon for companies which are aware that they
or their officers are the targets of government probes to
acknowledge the existence of the otherwise secret
investigations to fulfill their legal disclosure requirements
to their shareholders.
    Icahn said the SEC is looking into whether he and others
whom he did not name violated securities laws by acquiring and
selling more than five pct of a company's stock.
    SEC investigations into those kinds of possible securities
law violations have been spawned by the agency's widening probe
into the Wall Street insider trading scandal, according to
published reports.
    Making late filings of 13D forms, which disclose the amount
of stock over five pct an investor has in a company, or making
no filing at all could indicate a scheme to "warehouse" shares
of stock.
    In a warehousing scheme, a group of investors acting in
concert would each amass stock in the company without
disclosing that they have an agreement among them.
    By failing to disclose that they are acting together the
market is unware of the amount of stock of a company that is
controlled by a group acting in concert.
    Last year, the SEC charged members of the wealthy Belzberg
family of Canada with taking part in a warehousing scheme while
it was accumulating stock in Ashland Oil Inc.
 Reuter
