Calandra had used the newsletter to tout Ivanhoe Energy and Ivanhoe Mines, stocks he at one time owned.
Calandra has plugged Ivanhoe Mines in numerous columns and has gone on Ivanhoe-bankrolled trips to Mongolia, Beijing and London.
For most of 2003, the SEC claims, Calandra wrote about 23 different stocks without properly disclosing his ownership interest in them.
FORBES: Calandra: Ex-MarketWatch Commentator In $540,000 Settlement
Kramer said in an interview that as a newsletter writer Calandra was expected by his audience to own the stocks he was touting.
Between September and the start of 2004 Calandra gave special mention to at least one of the Ivanhoe companies in 10 of his columns.
Calandra continued writing his column and newsletter while Marketwatch waited for him to turn over his brokerage records on the agreed upon January date.
Unlike its reporters, CBS Marketwatch allowed Calandra, as a columnist, to own shares in companies he covered as long as he disclosed the ownership.
No one applauds louder than Thom Calandra, a columnist at CBS MarketWatch, a business-news Web site, where he writes a column and pitches his newsletter.
"(Calandra) resigned because he has been under enormous stress and he decided now is the time to focus on himself and his family, " said Dana Welch, Calandra's attorney.
Kramer added that he did not think the ownership clouded Calandra's judgment when he wrote his column, which Kramer claimed was not used to tout the Ivanhoe stocks as often as the newsletter.
Calandra, who recommended Ivanhoe Energy and Ivanhoe Mines in his newsletter, numerous Internet columns and on the CBS Marketwatch television program, said he had fully disclosed the junkets and his share ownership in Ivanhoe Energy.
But in December, Calandra told his company that the San Francisco office of the SEC had asked for records of his stock trades, newsletters and e-mails, prompting Marketwatch to launch its own investigation and ask Calandra for his brokerage records.
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