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Gold/Mining/Energy : Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Davy Crockett who wrote (96)	3/28/2002 3:36:07 PM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 97

6 former Waste Management execs charged Wed Mar 27, 6:23 AM ET Matt Krantz and Jon Swartz USA TODAY The great accounting crackdown of 2002 heated up Tuesday as the SEC charged the co-founder and five other past Waste Management executives with fraud. Calling Waste Management ''one of the most egregious accounting frauds we have ever seen,'' the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) charged executives, including co-founder and former CEO Dean Buntrock, for overstating earnings by $1.7 billion from 1992 to 1997. The SEC alleges Buntrock and the other executives illegally gained nearly $29 million by selling stock and getting bonuses propped up by fraudulent results. Meanwhile, investors lost $6 billion after the accounting tricks unraveled, causing Waste Management in February 1998 to restate earnings for the nearly six-year period, says Thomas Newkirk, associate director of the SEC. Buntrock's attorney, John McCarthy, on Tuesday called the charges ''outrageous.'' Waste Management shares fell only 1 cent to $26.89; the lawsuit won't affect the company, because the six executives have long stepped down. Also, the company settled the securities class-action lawsuit for $220 million in December 1998 and paid $457 million in November 2001 for a later lawsuit. Arthur Andersen, Waste Management's auditor, settled with the SEC for $7 million in 2001 for its role in the overstatement -- currently the largest fine ever paid to the SEC by an accounting firm. Andersen CEO Joseph Berardino resigned Tuesday (story, above). Meanwhile, there was plenty of other accounting news to digest: * Network Associates said the SEC is investigating its accounting for 2000. The SEC did not specify what it is looking into, but Network Associates officials believe the probe was triggered by an executive shake-up in December 2000. At the time, the security-software company announced a change in accounting methods and warned of a revenue shortfall. Chief Financial Officer Stephen Richards defended Network Associates' accounting and said business ''remains solid.'' Network Associates shares fell $2.77, or 11%, to $22.23. * Microsoft late Monday said it found a ''clerical error'' that forced it to refile its last two quarterly statements. The nearly $1 billion error on the cash-flow statement didn't affect Microsoft's revenue or bottom line. Yet despite the growing accounting outcry, Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Alan Greenspan (news - web sites) said Tuesday that improved corporate governance has already emerged ''out of the ashes of the Enron debacle'' and warned against creating too many regulations. History has shown such rules have been ''only partially successful,'' he said. But he repeated a recommendation that stock options be treated as expenses on a company's books. story.news.yahoo.com