OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) – Warren Buffett said he was wrong not to press David Sokol about purchases of Lubrizol Corp stock while his former top lieutenant was pitching the chemicals company as a possible takeover target for Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
It was the kind of answer investors had clamored to hear from Buffett at this year’s Berkshire annual meeting, ordinarily a lovefest for tens of thousands of shareholders, and over which the Sokol episode had cast a cloud.
Buffett said Sokol had violated Berkshire insider trading rules, and other rules he orders managers to follow, by failing to disclose his January purchase of Lubrizol shares, less than four weeks after starting talks with Citigroup Inc bankers about the company.
Sokol, who chaired Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy unit, ran its NetJets plane leasing unit, and was a top Buffett deal maker, was considered a leading contender to succeed 80-year-old Buffett as Berkshire’s chief executive.
But he
Read More from the Article Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110430/bs_nm/us_berkshire
