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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (2827)	7/22/2002 11:50:00 AM
From: crdesign	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

WHy does anybody care what this Zeev have to say? I see stories that he's totally bullish, 20% cash, etc. etc. He's proving one thing; what not to do. One thing to remember always: "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." I remain, Tim (in cash and a little of the AU)

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (2827)	7/22/2002 12:45:26 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Dick Cheney and Halliburton corpwatch.org Dick Cheney was appointed CEO of Halliburton in 1995 and served in that post until shortly before being sworn in as Vice President. He became known as a tough, no nonsense, hands on manager. Cheney's specialty was landing government contracts for the firm. During his five years as CEO, Halliburton got $ 2.3 billion in contracts, compared to only $ 1.2 billion in the five years before he took over. But, in 1998 Halliburton suddenly saw its bottom line dwindling. Some of those loses stemmed from cyclical troubles in the oil industry. But, of much greater import was Halliburton's disastrous acquisition of Dresser Industries. Insiders say the deal was Cheney's baby all the way. "This is one of the most exciting things I've ever been involved in," Cheney said when the deal was announced. What Cheney did not mention was that Halliburton also acquired liability for nearly 300,000 pending legal claims by former Dresser employees involving asbestos-related health problems. Dresser's legal problems quickly began chewing away at Halliburton's books. Halliburton tried to stem the losses by cutting 10,000 jobs. But losses continued to mount. Cheney and Halliburton's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, looked at the books and decided that the best way to weather this storm was to simply change the way Halliburton counts its chickens. Before 1998 contested revenues -- bills customers had refused to pay -- were not booked until the controversy was settled and the bill either paid or written off as a loss. But, in 1998 Cheney decided it those contested revenues should be counted as income. It was no small change. According to a lawsuit filed by the public advocacy group, Judicial Watch, in 1998 Halliburton booked no less than $89 million in disputed costs. In 1999 another $98 million in disputed receivables was booked and $113 million for the year ended December 31, 2000, and unbilled receivables of $234 million for the year ending December 31, 2001, based on unapproved and disputed cost overruns. There is little ambiguity when it comes to accounting for uncollected, disputed revenues. Unless the company can prove that it is "probable" they will collect -- not simply "possible," such amounts cannot be counted as birds in hand. Like most corporate CEO's Cheney's contract had incentives built in. The better the company did, the better he did. Cheney was paid at least $12.5 million in set salary over his five years at Halliburton but the pot was sweetened with incentive stock options, of which Cheney received nearly $39 million worth by the time he left. This May the SEC announced it was investigating Halliburton's "aggressive" bookkeeping. The company's once highflying stock has slid from $60 a share to $13 at this writing. In June there were rumors -- denied by the company -- that bankruptcy loomed. It seems without Dick Cheney -- or at least his creative bookkeeping -- Halliburton can no longer figure out how to get black ink to trickle to its bottom line. Now the matter is in the hands of the SEC. Top among the questions they should ask is did Cheney conspire with Arthur Andersen to fraudulently inflate Halliburton's bottom line? And, if so, how much did it add to his annual compensation each of those years? In his speech on Wall Street Tuesday President Bush said any monies a company executive received thanks to phony bookkeeping should be returned. It is unlikely the Bush administration's SEC commissioner, Harvey Pitt, will go there. After all, Pitt was Arthur Andersen's attorney before being appointed to his current post.