Things going from bad to worse for Bob Carr as now he's been forced to sell almost 700,000 shares of  his stock.  That constitutes more than one-sixth of his holdings and the reason was to meet loan obligations for which the stock was pledged as security. 

The balance of his shares continues to be subject to pledges under the loan and although it's likely he'll have to sell more shares to meet those pledges, this is the last time we're going to hear anything about it. 

Last week, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Heartland on behalf of banks who were forced to issue new cards.  (see related stories below)



A breach can be a messy thing.  Hope the EFT networks are taking notice when they decide to go with either a hardware or software approach to bringing PIN Debit to the web.  In the Heartland breach, although 100 MILLION Personal Account Numbers (PAN's) were obtained...the total number of PIN's lifted was ZERO.  Let's keep it that way.

Here's the press release:

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Princeton, NJ – March 2, 2009 – Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY) announced today that Robert O. Carr, chief executive officer, and his wife, Jill A. Carr, were subject to the forced sale of an aggregate of 692,412 shares of the company’s common stock to meet obligations under a loan for which the shares were pledged as security. The proceeds of the loan were used to refinance prior loans, a portion of the proceeds of which were expended by Carr in connection with the acquisition of approximately 1.75 million additional shares of Heartland Payment Systems stock by the exercise in 2006 of options granted by two large institutional stockholders. The balance of the common stock of the company owned by the Carrs, approximately 4.3 million shares, continues to be subject to pledges under the loan, and it is likely that additional shares will be sold.

Carr commented, “I am extremely disappointed about this involuntary sale of my stock. This forced sale is precipitated by the mix of extraordinary circumstances confronting Heartland and the recent drop in its stock price. Unfortunately, I had no ability to stop the sales by my lender. Together, with my wife, I have been one of the company’s largest shareholders since its inception, and I acquired additional shares of stock in 2006 as an expression of my confidence in the company’s potential. This sale initiated by my lender does not in any way reflect my view of the company’s value and future performance potential. My confidence in Heartland remains strong, and I am enthusiastic about reestablishing my ownership position in the company over the months and years to come.”

The company has also been advised that Sanford C. Brown, chief sales officer, is expected to be subject to a forced sale of shares of the company’s common stock to meet obligations under a loan for which the shares were pledged as security.

The company does not undertake to provide further updates concerning future forced sales of shares owned by the Carrs or Brown.