Tribune Company Under Investigation for Potential Violations Involving the Company's Employee Stock Ownership Plan

by Paul Kiesel, Attorney
Kiesel, Boucher & Larson, LLP
(866) 735-1102 Ext 385

An investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain whether the Tribune Company and the Employee Stock Ownership Plan's ("ESOP") fiduciaries may have breached their fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence to the Plan's participants.

A breach may have occurred if the fiduciaries failed to prudently manage the Plan's assets, by among other things, causing the ESOP to purchase overvalued Company stock when the Company was overleveraged, over-encumbering the ESOP with debt, and continuing to purchase and/or hold Company stock after doing so was no longer prudent given the financial condition of the Company at the later more perilous purchase time.

A breach may have also occurred if the fiduciaries withheld or concealed material information from the Plan's participants with respect to the Company's business, financial results, and operations.

If you are a member of the Tribune Company's ESOP and would like to discuss this matter further or provide information relevant to the investigation that is taking place, please feel free to contact Mr. Paul R. Kiesel or Ms. Helen Zukin at 310-854-4444.

Paul Kiesel's law practice is devoted to the representation of consumers in personal injury, class action, environmental and toxic tort litigation. Mr. Kiesel serves as an officer on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Litigation Section. He was appointed by Chief Justice Ronald George to the State of California Judicial Council Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee.

He served on the Board of Governors for the California and Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Associations, now the Consumer Attorneys Associations of California and Los Angeles. After serving on each board for more than 10 years, Paul was elected an emeritus (life time) board member of both organizations. He was selected to sit on the Board of Governors for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL) from 2001 through 2005. Mr. Kiesel is an A.V. (highest rating) rated attorney with Martindale-Hubbell and has been recognized as one of the top 50 trial lawyers by the Los Angeles Business Journal and has been selected by California Law Business as one of the 100 most influential attorneys in the State of California. Mr. Kiesel has just been appointed to the California Advisory Board for Lexis Nexis for 2008.