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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (9921)	5/28/2002 4:21:36 PM
From: Edscharp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

This thread does give the impression of having become deserted. You may be right. I feel a little bit like Yoda. Yes, I sense a disturbance in the Force. Quiet they are. Yes, you are wise Jedi Gat, fear (of litigation) leads to the dark side.

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (9921)	5/30/2002 11:45:11 AM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

Report: Microsoft Accounting Eyed .c The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations that the software giant misrepresented its financial performance, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Quoting unnamed sources, the newspaper said that rather than imposing fines, the SEC is likely to bring civil charges that Microsoft, based in suburban Redmond, failed to keep accurate books and records. A common resolution in such cases is for a company to promise to follow SEC rules in the future. Agreement could be weeks away and the terms could change, the sources said. SEC probes are conducted under tight confidentiality and the agency's officials rarely comment on them. SEC spokeswoman Christi Harlan would neither confirm nor deny the Journal report Thursday. The issue has been hanging for more than two years, and the talks may reflect a recent SEC attempt to crack down on ``cookie jar'' accounting practices that fail to provide an accurate picture of earnings and revenues. Microsoft is accused of smoothing its results by setting aside artificially large reserves to reduce revenues with the idea of reversing that procedure to record the revenues in less profitable future periods. The sources told the newspaper, however, that investigators have been unable to determine clearly whether Microsoft ever did reverse the process. More than a year ago Microsoft received a so-called Wells notice from the SEC, a warning that the company could face civil charges, the newspaper reported. Chairman Bill Gates and other top Microsoft executives have been deposed, and settlement negotiations began around the end of 2001, the sources said. On June 30, 1999, Microsoft chief financial officer Greg Maffei revealed that the SEC had been investigating for several months in a matter regarding ``reserves and reserve policies.'' He said Microsoft was cooperating fully with the probe. ``We take our financial reporting responsibilities very seriously, and we work hard to comply with every aspect of the company's reporting obligations,'' a Microsoft spokesman told The Journal. The spokesman, who was not named in the report, would not comment further. Accounting rules generally allow businesses to set aside funds for potential expenses such as returned products, excessive inventory and bad debts. A higher estimate of those expenses reduces the amount of reported earnings. The investigation apparently stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 1997 by Charles Pancerzewski, a former Microsoft internal auditor who said he was wrongly fired for warning that Microsoft's accounting reserve practices could violate SEC rules The case was settled and the record sealed after a federal judge cleared the way for the case to go to trial. 05/30/02 11:22 EDT

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (9921)	5/30/2002 3:35:48 PM
From: Bill Wexler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

I haven't said anything about Tony because quite frankly...I don't care all that much. Some time ago Tony invited me to participate in his site. I poked around for a little while, but his rapid-fire trading style and the fact that he played short in obscure OTC-BB names put me off right away. I never short BB names (though I do short stocks that may eventually wind up there ;) ) and I don't approve or feel comfortable with the idea of using offshore accounts (something Tony advocated). I left his site and joined a few other people on Matt Tyson's web site for a few months, but nothing much came of that. I will say that this looks awfully bad for him. He has a prior criminal history and he is accused of using corrupt FBI agents to gather information he could use to trade on. It'll be an interesting trial, to say the least.