U.S. District Judge Barrington D. Parker ruled...

U.S. District Judge Barrington D. Parker ruled in Washington that the Belzberg family’s financial company violated federal securities law in its unsuccessful bid to take control of Ashland Oil Co. and must forfeit $2.7 million in stock profits. Parker held that First City Financial Corp. “with an excess of boldness” deliberately violated federal securities law by failing to make timely disclosures that it had purchased 5% of Ashland’s stock. Parker found that First City, through a subsidiary headed by Marc Belzberg, circumvented the disclosure requirement by arranging to acquire the bulk of its 1.4-million Ashland shares by “parking” its stock with the brokerage firm Bear, Stearns & Co. The judge said he will grant an injunction barring Belzberg and his family’s Canadian-based company from engaging in further “stock parking” arrangements to conceal ownership of securities.