Gault must cough up Super Bowl ring in Heart Tronic case

Former NFL star and Heart Tronics executive Willie Gault is being ordered to turn over his Super Bowl ring by the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, according to court documents dated last week.

Gault, who was the co-chief executive officer at Heart Tronics, was ordered to pay $206,571 in June to settle an SEC lawsuit over his involvement in a scheme to inflate the stock price of the company.

The SEC asked Gault to hand over the Super Bowl XX Championship Ring in June after he failed to pay up on an earlier payment.

The ring will be held in custodia legis “for at least until the appeal of the underlying judgement to the Ninth Circuit,” and Gault was given a 48-hour timeframe to return the ring, U.S. District Judge James Selna wrote on Friday.

The court also requested an inspection of Gault’s premises “at a mutually agreed on date” no later than noon on September 9 in order for the SEC to inventory his personal property.

In June, Gault was told to pay a $78,000 civil fine and give up $101,000 in ill-gotten gains plus $27,571 in interest. He was also banned from being an officer or director of public companies.

The terms were outlined in a final judgment issued by U.S. District Judge James Selna of the federal court in Santa Ana, California. Gault had argued that no sanctions, or at most a minimal fine, were warranted.

A federal jury in March 2015 cleared Gault of fraud, but found him liable for filing false certifications with the SEC and circumventing the company’s internal controls.

The SEC had sued Gault and others affiliated with Heart Tronics in December 2011.

Last March, a California jury cleared former Gault of intentionally defrauding investors in a scheme to inflate the price of stock in the heart-monitoring device company Heart Tronics.

The jury’s verdict found Gault, 54, not liable on 4 serious civil fraud charges, including intent to defraud and aiding and abetting fraud.

The jury did find he was liable for 3 other less serious charges, including charges that he violated provisions in the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law by filing false certifications in connection with the company’s financial statements.

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