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An Education Department official and financial aid directors at three universities received stock in a student loan company from the company's current president in what may have been a violation of securities law, Senate aides looking into the transactions say.
In various documents that have been turned over to staff members working for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the president of the company described the transfers as gifts. But at least one recipient of the shares has said he paid for the stock.
Because the executive, Fabrizio Balestri of Student Loan Xpress, had acquired the shares in a private placement of stock that restricts how it can be transferred, the gifts-or sale-may have run afoul of federal securities laws, said Mr. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate education committee. Yesterday he called on federal regulators to investigate the transactions.
The senator's staff has been investigating relations between loan companies and universities. The disclosures last week that the financial aid administrators owned the stock have prompted concerns that they had an incentive to steer students to the loan company. The government official helped oversee lenders in the federal student loan program.
The documents describing the transfers of stock as gifts were signed by Mr. Balestri and his wife. They contradict what one financial aid director said in an interview last week. That official, Lawrence Burt of the University of Texas at Austin, said he had paid $1,000 for 1,500 shares. Mr. Burt could not be reached for comment last night.
Mr. Balestri transferred stock not only to Mr. Burt but also to David Charlow, financial aid director for Columbia's undergraduate college and its engineering school; Catherine Thomas, director of financial aid at the University of Southern California; and Matteo Fontana, general manager in a unit of the Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education. In recent days, all four have been put on leave by their employers.
Senate aides said that for each $10,000 in the private placement, investors had received 10,000 shares and 5,000 warrants, or options to purchase additional stock before a certain date, in Education Lending Group, which was then the parent of Student Loan Xpress. Mr. Balestri obtained $80,000 worth of stock and kept none of it, according to the documents. In a personal list called "memorandums of gift", he wrote that he gave away 80,000 shares to 16 people on Dec. 31, 2001. That was one day before he began work at the company as its president.
The 2001 private placement raised $3.7 million for Education Lending and was authorized by that company's chief executive, Robert deRose. At the time, the stock was trading between $1 and $2 a share. It is not clear who purchased the rest of the shares or whether anyone else at the company had knowledge of Mr. Balestri's transfers.
一名教育部官员和三所大学的财务援助部门的主管从一个学生贷款公司现任总裁手中接受该公司股票，这种行为可能触犯了证券法，调查其中交易的参议员幕僚如此说。
在各种提交给为参议员爱德华•M•肯尼迪工作的成员的报告中，该公司总裁都把这些股票转让称之为礼物，但至少有一位接受者声称他为这些股票付了钱。
马塞诸塞州民主党员，领导参议院教育委员会的肯尼迪先生说由于学生助学贷款快车公司的总裁法布雷西奥•巴勒斯特里所得股票属于私募股票，无论作为礼物还是出售都与联邦证券法律相违背。昨天他号召联邦管理员来调查这些交易。
参议员的助手们正在调查贷款公司和大学之间的关系。上周披露的财务援助部门管理者持有股票一事引起了关注， 因为他们有动机引导学生去这家贷款公司。而政府官员则帮助监管在联邦学生贷款项目中的借款人。
把股票转让描述为礼物的文件是由巴勒斯特里先生和其夫人签署的。这些文件与一位财务援助部门主管上周在一次访谈中的话相矛盾。 那名官员即位于奥斯丁的德克萨斯大学的劳伦斯•波特说他为1500 张股票支付了一千美元。但昨晚却无法联系上波特先生并得到他对此作出的评论。
巴勒斯特里先生不仅把股票给了波特， 也给了大卫•查洛，哥伦比亚研究生院及其工程学院的财务援助部门主管；凯瑟琳•托马斯，南加州大学财务援助部门主管；以及马特奥•方塔纳， 教育部联邦学生援助办公室的总经理。最近，以上四位都被其雇主要求离职。
参议员的幕僚说私募中每一万美元投资人可以获得一万张股票和五千张认股权证，或选择从教育借款公司，学生货款快车公司当时的上级部门，在特定日期前购买额外的证券。根据文件巴勒斯特里先生获得的价值为八万美元的股票却没保留一张 。他在其称为礼物备忘录的私人清单中写道，他于2001年12月31日送给十六个人八万张股票，而那天是他成为公司总经理的前一天。
2001年的私募教育借款公司筹集了三百七十万美元，而且得到该公司总裁罗伯特•德罗斯的授权。那时该股票每一股的交易价在一到两美元之间。无法得知是谁购买了剩下的股票，或者该公司是否有其他人知道巴勒斯特里先生所做的股票转让。
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