On slow news day, arrested LHA Investor Relations director filmed ditching flip-flops and bolting from cameras in Manhattan to dodge media
A New York-based IRO inadvertently offered his profession a high-profile lesson in how not to prevent negative media coverage.
The IR director, who was charged with insider trading earlier this week, made headlines a second time – this time for ditching his flip flops and dashing down crowded New York streets to flee journalists covering his court proceedings.
Michael Anthony Dupre Lucarelli, a director of market intelligence at New York-based Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates Investor Relations, received widespread coverage Thursday afternoon in the US after he exited the courtroom and, startled by the presence of a CNBC cameraman and several photographers, took off running.
Lucarelli, who was wearing a sleeveless grey t-shirt and was described as ‘disheveled’ by media, continued to run barefoot after he lost both his leather flip-flops.
The SEC charged Lucarelli earlier this week with insider trading on accusations that he gained almost $1 mn by accessing draft press releases his firm was preparing for clients and either buying or shorting clients’ stock before the announcements. Investigators said he also lied to the brokerage firms he was using, saying he was either retired or self-employed.
His firm, LHA Investor Relations, says on its website that it works for companies in health care, technology, consumer products, financial services and other areas.
On a slow local news day ahead of the US Labor Day weekend starting Thursday, television images of his abandoned footwear and his run were replayed on CNBC and picked up on the internet. A Google News search for ‘Lucarelli barefoot’ garnered 114 hits by the end of the New York workday.
‘Investor relations guy accused of insider trading ran barefoot from the media,’ read the headline from Business Insider, while CNBC ran ‘Insider trading suspect bolts – barefoot – from cameras’.
The New York Daily News also attempted a humorous approach to the insider trading story, with a news story starting out: ‘Feet don’t fail me now!’
