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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (107615)	7/15/2002 5:10:28 PM
From: J. Nelson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 150070

It's the full face of a new market!!! home.attbi.com One needs to smile some days when the dark closes in.. LOL Have to see what you come up with to match this one.. Regards, Jim...

To: Jim Bishop who wrote (107615)	7/15/2002 5:49:09 PM
From: Taki	Respond to of 150070

(COMTEX) B: Bush: Pass Fraud Measure Before Recess B: Bush: Pass Fraud Measure Before Recess WASHINGTON, Jul 15, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- President Bush told business leaders Monday, "We intend to hold people accountable" as the Senate neared passage of legislation aimed at shoring up investor confidence by creating stiff penalties and jail terms for corporate fraud and tightening oversight of the accounting industry. The bipartisan bill has been lifted by a rising tide of concern over the string of corporate accounting scandals that have shattered Americans' confidence in business and the markets, and threatened the fragile economic recovery. In a strong show of unanimity, senators voted last week to add a series of new penalties, including 10-year prison terms for securities fraud. Chief executive officers and chief financial officers who certify false company financial reports would be slapped with prison terms of five to 10 years and fines of $500,000 to $1 million. Bush urged Congress in Monday's speech to get legislation to eliminate company fraud on his desk before lawmakers adjourn for the summer recess. The House already has approved a measure widely considered to be weaker because it does not contain penalties for corporate fraud and does not go as far in reining in accountants. Differences between the two measures would have to be resolved before a compromise bill could be sent to Bush. Bush, in his address in Birmingham, Ala., coupled an upbeat assessment of the economy with a warning to corporate leaders to "behave responsibly," an attempt to restore investor confidence in the wake of a wave of business scandals. Despite his attempt to restore investor confidence, the markets dropped even further following his remarks. The Dow Jones industrials were down about 400 points in early afternoon trading, though it rallied late in the session to close down 45 points. Bush himself has been dogged in recent weeks by a decade-old insider-trading investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into his $848,000 sale of stock in his former oil company, Harken Energy Corp., where he was a director. And Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton Co., is being investigated by the SEC for its accounting practices. The Senate bill would ban personal loans from companies to their top officials and directors. Senators on Monday continued to sound a populist note in floor debate of the bill. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., ticked off the names of former chairman Kenneth Lay and other top Enron executives who cashed in millions of dollars of company stock last year before it plunged. In contrast, Dorgan said that "the folks at the bottom lost their shirts," referring to employees who later lost jobs and retirement savings in accounts heavy with Enron stock. The White House has defended Bush's low-interest loans of $180,000 from Harken - a type of transaction that Bush now wants to ban as part of the crackdown on corporate wrongdoing. Bush and the Republicans have been on the defensive as Democrats have made corporate accountability a political issue in this congressional election year. Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer portrayed the questions the White House has been facing over its handling of corporate scandals as mere politicking by Democrats. "The closer it gets to the election it's going to be expected that some people are going to engage in statements that are political in nature," Fleischer said Monday. Meanwhile, Bush's SEC chairman, Harvey Pitt, is under fire because of his past work representing the accounting industry and big corporations before the agency. Several members of Congress - including Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona - have urged his resignation. Fleischer shrugged off calls for Pitt to step down, saying "the president stands by his team." In his remarks, Bush repeatedly condemned corporate fraud, saying he expected "the highest ethical standards in corporate America." "In order to be a responsible American, you must behave responsibly," Bush said in a message intended for business executives. Bush insisted that the economy is fundamentally strong, and said its problems stemmed from a "hangover" from the 1990s. "America must get rid of the hangover as a result of the binge, the economic binge we just went through," he said at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. "We were in a land where there was endless profit, no tomorrow when it came to the stock markets and corporate profits, and now we're suffering a hangover from that binge." By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved -0- APO Priority=r APO Category=1151 (PROFILE (CO:Harken Energy Corp; TS:HEC; IG:OIS;) (CO:Halliburton Co Holding Co; TS:HAL; IG:OIE;) ) KEYWORD: WASHINGTON SUBJECT CODE: 1151 * end of story *