CalPERS Suit Pushes More Changes at UnitedHealth

UnitedHealth Group might have to make additional corporate governance changes as part of the settlement of a lawsuit related to backdated stock options, attorneys said on Thursday, the AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Attorneys met with Judge James Rosenbaum in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to discuss the settlement, which Rosenbaum must approve. The financial terms of the settlement, which UnitedHealth announced last month, likely will remain the same and will include the repayment of $320 million in stock options and $99 million in retirement and executive savings benefits by former company Chair and CEO William McGuire.

The financial terms of the settlement also will include a repayment by William Spears, a former UnitedHealth director, with an arbitrator scheduled to determine the amount, Karl Cambronne, an attorney for some of the pension funds that filed the lawsuit, said. In addition, the settlement will include corporate governance changes by UnitedHealth, Cambronne said.

UnitedHealth attorney Peter Carter said that the company has made major corporate governance changes and that the corporate governance rating of the company by Institutional Shareholder Services has increased from 19% to 93%.

Rosenbaum could take as long as one year to rule on the settlement, according to Cambronne (Freed, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1/11).

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