News briefs

NORWALK, Conn. — The Financial Accounting Standards Board on June 24 tentatively decided to require that corporations disclose target and actual allocations of defined benefit plan assets, grouped into such categories as equity, fixed income, real estate and sponsoring company securities.

Among other disclosures, the board would require: the expected return for each asset class; an income statement disclosure of net pension cost; and expected contributions to pension plans.

These tentative requirements will become part of the exposure draft on the new pension disclosure rule FASB hopes to issue in the third quarter. It expects to issue a final statement in December.

Before issuing the exposure draft, the board still has to decide whether to apply these disclosures uniformly to all companies or to apply different requirements for non-public companies, and whether to add any disclosures to quarterly or other interim reporting periods.

BALTIMORE — Nathan A. Chapman Jr., head of Chapman Capital Management, was indicted June 26 by a federal grand jury for mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Chapman used $5 million he managed for the $24.6 billion Maryland State Retirement & Pension System to invest in his own company.

Thomas M. DiBiagio, U.S. attorney in Maryland, said Mr. Chapman — through one of his subadvisers, Alan Bond — used retirement system assets to buy shares of eChapman.com, a company formed by merging The Chapman Co. and Chapman Capital. The system lost $4.7 million in that investment before terminating Mr. Chapman in 2002, after learning he was under SEC investigation for the eChapman.com investment. Mr. Bond was convicted in unrelated cases.