‘Rudy’ Charged in Stock Scam by SEC
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Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, on whose life the movie "Rudy" was based, indicates to students at a Notre Dame pep rally, Oct. 14, 2005, in South Bend, Ind. (Photo credit: Kohl Threlkeld/South Bend Tribune/AP Photo)
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, the subject of an inspirational movie of an undersized football player who finally makes the Notre Dame team through sheer determination, was charged today with being part of a ”classic pump-and-dump scheme” to deceive investors into buying stock in Ruettiger’s sports drink company.
Ruettiger, 63, and a dozen others are named in the complaint filed today by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ruettiger, identified in the SEC suit as “the walk-on football player at Notre Dame who was the subject of the 1993 movie ‘Rudy,’” was the CEO of the Rudy Nutrition, or RUNU.
The company allegedly produced and sold “modest amounts” of a sports drink called “Rudy,” which was supposed to compete with Gatorade. The drink’s tagline was “Dream Big! Never Quit!”
The SEC alleged that Rudy Nutrition provided investors with false and misleading information about the company, such as a promotional email bragging that in “a major southwest test, Rudy outsold Gatorade 2 to 1!”, according to the SEC complaint. The company would then allegedly manipulate trading by artificially inflating the price of the stock while selling unregistered shares to investors.
The scheme allegedly occurred between February and September 2008, grossing over $11 million for the participants. The SEC alleges that the group “sold almost one billion shares to unsuspecting investors in the public market during the scheme.”
“Investors were lured into the scheme by Mr. Ruettiger’s well-known, feel-good story but found themselves in a situation that did not have a happy ending,” Scott W. Friestad, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. “The tall tales in this elaborate scheme included phony taste tests and other false information that was used to convince investors they were investing in something special.”
As a kid, Ruettiger had dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame, but lacked the grades, size and speed to get into the school or make the team. He worked his way up from a nearby junior college, got a job on campus and was eventually allowed to practice with the team. Rudy was allowed to suit for the final home game of his senior year when other starting players appealed to their coach to let Rudy play.
Ruettiger and 10 of the scam’s other participants have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations. Ruettiger has agreed to pay $382,866 to settle the charges.
Rudy Nutrition is no longer in business.
Ruettiger’s attorney Michael Eldredge could not be reached for comment.
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Wow, the Feds going after “Rudy!” for some advertising claims, when over a BILLION dollars has just been stolen from MF Global brokerage accounts, which they’re conveniently calling “a Loan”.
They’ll crush a little guy but let the BIG stinky FISH go free.
Posted by: SavageNation | December 16, 2011, 5:27 pm 5:27 pm
I guess you can say that Rudy turned out to be a crook.
Posted by: Taylor M. | December 16, 2011, 8:49 pm 8:49 pm
His dreams have finally come true. This is reason why Obama needed to legislate the behavior of these Wall Street crooks
Posted by: NoFlyZone2 | December 16, 2011, 10:07 pm 10:07 pm
I know you didn’t mean it like that, but the Congress “legislates”, not Obama.
Posted by: newcountryman | December 16, 2011, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
He got off easy.
Posted by: Earl | December 16, 2011, 11:19 pm 11:19 pm
That’s a little shy of $4,000,000 for all ten defendants, and they stole $11,000,000,, clearing $7,000,000 in profit “to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations”!!!
The SEC is helping them WASH THEIR HANDS for PEANUTS!!! This is why wall street crooks keep robbing again and again, because there are no COPS to stop them, only SEC attorneys to aid and abet them!
Posted by: anti_fascist_freedom_fighter | December 16, 2011, 11:33 pm 11:33 pm
Wow. People commenting with logical fallacies. Instead condemning Rudy, they defend him by saying other people are worse. A tired argumentative technique. He defrauded thousands. End of story.
Posted by: Phil | December 16, 2011, 11:44 pm 11:44 pm
Darn! I hope my wife doesn’t see this story. She loved that movie and would be crushed to learn the real-life hero turned out to be a sleazy crook.
Posted by: Cala | December 16, 2011, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
If you read Joe Montana’s comments, ole Rudy’s story hardly ever true.
Posted by: @cala | December 17, 2011, 2:22 am 2:22 am
get’m all, the huge, the large and the small. if the SEC has the evidence and it’s a slam dunk, then nail them no matter who they are and nail them good. serves rudy right.
Posted by: david | December 17, 2011, 2:56 am 2:56 am
And where was the SEC for MF Global. I thought Frank Dodd bill was going to help with this. Did you see that “President Barack Obama is nominating a senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to head a new government office set up to provide regulators with improved information to help prevent another financial crisis.”? Wasn’t that was the Frank-Dodd bill was for? Is that how you cut the cost of govt?
Posted by: deanbob | December 17, 2011, 9:08 am 9:08 am
Rudy was my friend! In the summer he worked for the Notre Dame ice-hockey camp. He taught us how to train and was a general assistant type consular. I had no idea who he was until one of my co-campers told me that’s Rudy who played football for ND. I could care less about that, just having a good time at hockey camp and kissing the girls at cheer leader camp in the girls’ dorms. But Rudy was a very nice kid. He treated us all as equals, helped all kids the same not just the stars. Rudy took us in the training room once. The trainer was wrapping the ankle of some African American basketball player doing summer training. I asked Rudy who it was, he said but I had no idea. Just knew that was biggest man I’d ever seen in my life. (Even though the player was a ND student and couldn’t have been over 22 years old.
One day after hockey films, a bunch of us were sitting near Rudy who just turned off the film projector. Coach left and Rudy told us the story of his famous football game. From pre-game in the locker room to the end. All us kids were captivated. Rudy really told a great animated story.
Posted by: Fresh_Water | December 17, 2011, 11:42 am 11:42 am
The players were not the ones who lobbied to put “Rudy” in the game. It was head coach Dan Devine who proposed having him suit up and play in the game. The players lobbying to the head coach for “Rudy” to play is a misconception precipitated by the fiction within the movie “Rudy”. Therefore, the movie should not be a source for a journalist at ABC.
Posted by: Michael renwick | December 17, 2011, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
“That’s a little shy of $4,000,000 for all ten defendants, and they stole $11,000,000,, clearing $7,000,000 in profit “to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations”!!!
The SEC is helping them WASH THEIR HANDS for PEANUTS!!! This is why wall street crooks keep robbing again and again, because there are no COPS to stop them, only SEC attorneys to aid and abet them!”
*************************************************************************
AS the song goes…..”A man with a briefcase can always steal more money than a man with a gun”…..
Posted by: Cheetah | December 17, 2011, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
What about those he scammed…They get 11 million minus a couple hundred thousand and we are just screwed.. How nice..Love them feds. I wish I could sue him for 100 dollars for every penny he took from me.
Posted by: Scammed | December 17, 2011, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Did his lawyers carry him on their shoulders out of the courtroom?? That would have been awesome.
Posted by: Dawgfan | December 17, 2011, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
He’s a crook, plain and simple… Greed, greed, greed, no conscience.
Posted by: tom beck | December 19, 2011, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
They scammed $11M, and he was fined about $380k. Assuming the others were fined similar amounts, that would be $11M scammed and they only had to give back less than $4M. Apparently with the SEC on top of things, crime really does pay. And pays well.
Posted by: Tyrone | December 27, 2011, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm