“Cooked Dividends” Leads to Bloody Massacre

Cooking dividends is the practice of declaring a false or “cooked” dividend for the purpose of raising the value of a company’s shares. Apparently, this was a serious problem in the early days of both California and Nevada. The practice is still illegal under the California General Corporation Law. Section 2254, among other things, makes every director, officer or agent of any foreign or domestic corporation guilty of a felony who knowingly concurs in making, publishing or posting either generally or privately to the shareholders or other persons any...