PurchasePro founder convicted in stock fraud scheme

ALEXANDRIA — A one-time dot-com billionaire was convicted Thursday of stock fraud and obstruction of justice after a court finding that he deceived investors in his Las Vegas software company.

Charles E. "Junior" Johnson was chief executive of PurchasePro Inc., a software company that went bankrupt as the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.

U.S. District Judge Walter Kelley found Johnson guilty on all counts after concluding he schemed to falsely inflate his company's revenue in the first three months of 2001.

The case has been under investigation for six years and resulted in convictions of six other PurchasePro executives.

Two midlevel executives at AOL, which had a marketing partnership with PurchasePro, were acquitted at an earlier trial.

Johnson compounded his problems by trying to alter documents used at his trial, which resulted in an additional charge of obstruction of justice.

Johnson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said he found it troubling that the judge relied in his ruling on testimony from other PurchasePro executives who had acknowledged lying to investigators.

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