Fog lifts.(Whispers)(Brief article)

Last fall, Arkansas Business agreed to Cauley's demand (accompanied by a threat of legal action) that we stop trying to contact him for interviews or comments on any stories. So we're on our own in trying to piece this thing together.

But something we found baffling now seems to make more sense.

On Dec. 1, we commented that it was "unusual" for a sitting director of a publicly traded company to sell every share of that company's stock that he could--yet that's what Cauley did. Between Oct. 29 and Nov. 21, Cauley sold more than $10 million worth of stock in Home BancShares Inc. of Conway.

While he was selling, his former law firm--now known as Carney Williams Bates Bozeman & Pulliam PLLC--joined in a motion to distribute the Bisys settlement to the plaintiffs, and such an order was issued on Dec. 3.

How much advance notice Cauley had of that motion is not known, and his former partner, Allen Carney, politely declined to answer.

Some of Cauley's Home BancShares stock had been held for less than six months, and under the Securities & Exchange Commission's short-swing profit rule, an insider must return to the company any profit made on shares bought and sold within six months.

Our math's a little fuzzy, but that quick sale probably cost Cauley between $50,000 and $80,000 at a time when he really, really needed the money.

He resigned from the HBI board on April 3.

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