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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. says a securities firm, which the processor is not naming, has forced company CEO Robert O. Carr and his wife to sell 692,412 shares in the Princeton, N.J.-based processor, Heartland announced today. The Carrs had pledged the shares as security for loans the Carrs received from the unidentified firm. The shares were sold in three sets at $5.44, $5.55 and $5.64 each, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Robert O. Carr used the original loan to buy Heartland shares and pay taxes on those stock purchases. He used a loan because the Carrs did not want to sell shares in order to raise the money to pay the taxes due on the purchases, a Heartland spokesperson says. The securities firm used proceeds from this recent sale, totaling approximately $3.8 million, to refinance other loans the Carrs had. In 2006, the Carrs used loan proceeds to help buy 1.75 million shares of Heartland. Currently, the couple holds approximately 4.3 million Heartland shares, though a Heartland statement released to CardLine says it is likely the Carrs will be forced sell more shares. In the same statement, Carr says he is "extremely disappointed about this involuntary sale of my stock." Carr says was not able to stop the sale. This sale does not "reflect my view of the company's value and future performance potential," the statement says. Carr says he intends to "reestablish my ownership position in the company over the months and years to come." On March 2, 2006, Heartland's share price closed at $22.48. In early trading today shares were selling for $4.99.
