Printer Fires 3 More Workers in Insider Case

CHICAGO — Printer R. R. Donnelley & Sons has fired three more production workers that it believes helped leak advance copies of an influential Business Week column to a stockbroker, a company official said Wednesday.

The firings late last week of three workers at Donnelley’s Old Saybrook, Conn., plant brought to seven the number of Donnelley employees who have either been fired or resigned in connection with the company’s investigation.

Arthur Prine, a spokesman for the Chicago-based printer, said Donnelley had exhausted all of its leads but was continuing to cooperate with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

“We’re not totally sure that it’s all over,” Prine said. “We’re not pursuing any new leads at this moment. If any more evidence or leads turn up, we’ll be investigating them.”

Prine said the three were involved in passing advance copies of Business Week to William Dillon, a former Merrill Lynch & Co. stockbroker who allegedly traded on the information.

The workers apparently passed information along when other workers involved in the scheme were working different shifts or were on vacation, Prine said.

Donnelley earlier fired two other workers at the Old Saybrook plant and fired a quality-control supervisor at its Torrance plant who traded in Business Week-touted stocks at the Anaheim office of Prudential-Bache Securities.

A Donnelley production supervisor in Torrance, who also bought and sold stocks mentioned in the “Inside Wall Street” column, resigned.

No criminal charges have been filed against any of the fired workers. Donnelley said it is considering pressing charges for theft.