NYT: Halliburton Settles S.E.C. Accusations (from when Cheney was CEO)

[DeepModem Mom]

Halliburton Settles S.E.C. Accusations
By FLOYD NORRIS

Published: August 4, 2004


The Halliburton Company secretly changed its accounting practices when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday as it fined the company $7.5 million and brought actions against two former financial officials.

The commission said the accounting change enabled Halliburton, one of the nation's largest energy services companies, to report annual earnings in 1998 that were 46 percent higher than they would have been had the change not been made. It also allowed the company to report a substantially higher profit in 1999, the commission said.

The commission did not say that Mr. Cheney acted improperly, and the papers released by the commission did not detail the extent to which he was aware of the change or of the requirement to disclose it to investors. The S.E.C. said that Mr. Cheney had testified under oath and had "cooperated willingly and fully in the investigation conducted by the commission's career staff."...

***

The accounting change dealt with the way Halliburton booked cost overruns on projects. At the time, it was having large cost overruns on projects in the Middle East operated by its Brown & Root Energy Services business, which under its old accounting policy would have reduced its reported profit.

The actual change in accounting, the commission said, was permissible under generally accepted accounting principles, but the failure to inform investors that the change had been made - and of its effect on the company's reported profit - violated securities laws....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/business/04halliburton.html

[saigon68]

1. DISGUSTING CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Why anyone who is in the middle class and votes for these clowns is not adjudged mentally ill --- boggles the mind.

[TaleWgnDg]

2. exactly . . . anyone who is in the middle class . . .

or working class who votes for GWBush and Company has scrambled brains. GWBush inflames folks with religious rhetoric, fear mongering rhetoric, anti-abortion rhetoric, and anything else to cause the emotions to shut-down the cognitive side of the brain! So far GWBush and Company have been successful at it too.

However, has America had enough of these clowns as yet? Has Dumbya reached "uncoolness" yet? Will Dumbya and Company go "Cheney" themselves?

:bounce:

[chelsea0011]

4. Anybody who is middle class and swears by Bush.......

simply ask them, "what has Bush done for you"? Besides sending many off to Iraq to die and get shot at, I can't think of anything these clowns have done.

And Cheney would be in deep shit if this Haliburton stuff had happened now. Something to do with CEO's being held accountable. Oh, how Cheney longs for the good old days.

[Rose Siding]

3. "...unacceptable lapses in the company's conduct"

Like someone who only mugs on the second Tuesday of every other month?

This fine is for not cooperating with the investigators, right? The charges are still ongoing:

snip>
The commission said the $7.5 million penalty paid by Halliburton "reflects the commission's view that there were unacceptable lapses in the company's conduct during the course of the investigation, which had the effect of delaying the production of information and documentation necessary to the staff's expeditious completion of its investigation."

[GoBlue]

5. How much did they make?

Obviously this change was intended to inflate stock prices. How much did the perpetrators make. I'll bet it was a lot more than $7.5M. Who says crime doesn't pay.