The stock price of Waco-based Life Partners Holdings, the troubled reseller of life insurance death benefits, rose nearly 5 percent Thursday after the company announced the hiring of its second chief financial officer in two months.
Colette Pieper, 58, a ranking accounting executive at USAA Insurance of San Antonio, will join Life Partners on Nov. 19.Life Partners' share price ( ticker: LPHI) climbed 11 cents to finish at $2.41, up 4.8 percent. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded as high as $7.49.David Martin, who served as CFO starting in 2008, left July 31, seven months after being named in a federal insider-trading case. Martin was replaced by Scott Dubs, who was fired Aug. 31 after just 10 days as CFO.The sacking followed inquiries by the Star-Telegram about Dubs' personal bankruptcy at the time and a lawsuit judgment that found he had inflated his salary and paid his wife's credit card bills from his Fort Worth employer's bank account.Last year, Ernst & Young quit as the company's independent auditor, disavowing Life Partners' 2009 financial statement.Aside from Martin, Life Partners CEO Brian Pardo and President Scott Peden face insider-trading charges leveled in January by the Securities and Exchange Commission's Fort Worth office. The executives deny the allegations.In August, Life Partners won a case lodged by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that it illegally traded in securities. The company says it deals in insurance policies, not securities, and the judge agreed.In a statement, Life Partners said Pieper, who was USAA's accounting financial director the past six years, will be paid a salary of $165,000 -- $40,000 more than Dubs was to have received.A certified public accountant, Pieper has 32 years of accounting, treasury management, tax compliance and financial management experience, a Life Partners disclosure said.Barry Shlachter,817-390-7718Twitter: @bshlachterHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
