Theodore Roxford has come up with some big, corporate acquisition ideas, or so he says. In early 2003, he bid roughly $78 billion for Sony Corp., and then a few months later made an offer to Hugh Hefner to take Playboy Enterprises private, the SEC says.
    Now, those plans have gotten him into trouble.
    The SEC sued Roxford and a partnership he founded — Hollingsworth, Rothwell & Roxford — in Manhattan federal court Friday, alleging the offers were bogus and meant to manipulate the stock prices of those companies.
    Between January 2003 and April 2007, Roxford also made offers for Zapata, Edgetech Services and PeopleSupport, the SEC says. Zapata was founded as an oil and gas company by former U.S. President George Bush.
    Roxford told Reuters on Saturday that he had not seen the lawsuit and would comment after he had done so. He said he would be in touch Monday, but had not returned calls by 1 pm Eastern time. He said he was in San Francisco.
    Roxford has also used Lawrence David Niren, Theodore Vakil and Edward Pastorini as aliases, regulators say.
    Earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported that an Edward Pastorini may lead a bid for Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest gold producer. Bloomberg later said the details of the report and Pastorini’s identity could not be verified.
    South African authorities are looking into the case. The SEC did not specifically link Roxford to the Gold Fields bid in its complaint.

    Will the real Edward Pastorini please come forward?

(Written by Paritosh Bansal)

(Photo: Playboy bunny outfit. Reuters file)