The top editor of Forbes was fired last month after the company discovered that he had received a payment of about $6 million from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine, reports Benjamin Mullin of The New York Times.
Mullin reports, “Randall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, has teamed up with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Mr. Shook sold a majority stake in Shook Research to PPC Enterprises, a private equity firm, last August, two of the people familiar with the transaction said.
“It isn’t clear why Mr. Shook paid Mr. Lane. According to a person familiar with Mr. Lane’s thinking, he considered the payment a gift in recognition of the advice he had provided Mr. Shook over the years.
“This article is based on interviews with a half-dozen people familiar with Mr. Lane’s exit and his work at Forbes who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential and proprietary information.”
Read more here. Mullin has a statement from Lane in which he admits he made a mistake.
