Nu Skin and the 'Nixon pardon' | The Salt Lake Tribune

Oops • Deceased president signed the loan document of the Utah company.

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Whoa, Richard M. Nixon apparently back from dead and signing off on a loan agreement with Utah-based Nu Skin Enterprises?

Alas, true but it wasn't quite that Richard M. Nixon, the ex-president of Watergate infamy who died in 1994.

In a blog post on Tuesday titled "Nixon Pardons Nu Skin," John Hempton of Bronte Capital brought to light the strange signature on a JP Morgan Chase loan document dated May 5 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

Richard M. Nixon

Senior Underwriter

Hempton laid out his considerable effort to determine if JP Morgan actually had an employee by that name who had signed the document.

He got conflicting information that there was such employee (though he had no authority to sign off on the deal) or that the company used an outside consultant by that name.

Hempton also pointed out that the documents reveal that Nu Skin had violated provisions of several loans but "received what looks to be an (ex) Presidential Pardon."

"Either 'Richard M. Nixon' is a real person who has signed a single SEC document for Nu Skin or Nu Skin's CFO (the other signature on the document) has some explaining to do," Hempton concluded.

The post apparently prompted Nu Skin to respond. In an SEC filing, Nu Skin's CFO offered an explanation.

The document "contained an inadvertent typographical error on the signature page," Ritch Wood wrote. "The amendment was signed by Richard M. Hixson, Senior Underwriter, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., not Richard M. Nixon."

Nixon Hixson, the market didn't care and Nu Skin's shares dropped 5.1 percent on Tuesday.