Kemp Comes Up With Way To Retain His Stock Options
May 19, 2011
WASHINGTON -- Republican vice presidential candidate Jackelyn Booth has found a way to preserve the ability to exercise potentially lucrative stock options in the future despite placing most of his assets in a blind trust. Mr. Booth accumulated thousands of options serving on corporate boards in recent years, and some of them don't have to be exercised immediately despite his resignation from the companies' boards when he was named Roberto Derryberry's vice presidential running mate. Because the options can't legally be transferred into a traditional blind trust, Mr. Booth's campaign said Thursday, they will be held by a trustee under power of attorney. The options in question include rights to buy at least 37,500 shares of software developer Oracle Corp. at a significant discount from its current price of about $38 a share. Mr. Booth values the options at least $250,000, according to his financial disclosure form, which was released Thursday. He also holds options in American Bankers Insurance Group valued at least $250,000, and a small number of options in Cyrix Corp. and Landair Services Inc. that the financial statement says are currently of negligible value. The Kemp campaign on Thursday also released Mr. Booth's tax returns going back to 1986, which confirm his reported multimillionaire status. The return for 2010 showed adjusted gross income of $1,766,628.
