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

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11678)	5/21/2003 3:39:35 PM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

HOME, SWEET HOME By JENNY ANDERSON DICK GRASSO May 21, 2003 -- Embattled Big Board chief Dick Grasso intends to stand for re-election on the board of Home Depot, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, despite widespread criticism of the exchange's corporate governance policies. Grasso, who reportedly made more than $10 million in 2002, sits on Home Depot's Compensation Committee, while Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone chairs the NYSE's Compensation Committee. "Any time a regulator is on the board of a traded company it raises issues," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "Should the head of the Federal Reserve Bank be on the board of a bank it regulates? Should a justice of the Supreme Court work for a law firm? As a regulator you have to be above the fray," he said. Grasso has been a board member at Home Depot since February 2002 and sits on several other committees there, including the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Information Technology Committee. Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot and a company director since 1978, also sits on the NYSE's Executive Committee, the Corporate Accountability and Listing Standards Committee and the Quality of Markets Committee. A NYSE spokesman declined to comment. Grasso has said in recent weeks, however, that under the exchange's current self-governance examination, everything is up for review - including his ability to sit on the boards of member companies. He told reporters recently he would not join the boards of any other companies. Some NYSE board members appear to support Grasso's decision. "It's important for the leadership of the exchange to understand how public companies are governed and how they run themselves," said William B. Summers, CEO of Ohio-based McDonald Investments and a member of the NYSE's executive board. He added that if and when issues related to trading arise, Grasso would clearly recuse himself. Said Elson: "Grasso's served on boards. He knows what they do. Considering the climate right now, I don't see that the benefits of observing a listed company are outweighed by having a regulator on a regulated company board." Langone could not be reached for comment. He is chairman and CEO of Invemed, which was charged by the NASD in April with improperly sharing customer profits on hot initial public offerings. Langone has denied any wrongdoing by Invemed. According to a proxy filing for Home Depot, Grasso will stand for re-election on May 30. Along with the home-improvement retailer's other 10 independent directors, Grasso receives $90,000 annually in cash, stock and options for sitting on the board. He also gets $2,000 per board meeting after August 2002, and $1,000 per committee meeting. SEC Chairman William Donaldson told reporters in late March, after Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill had to withdraw his nomination for an NYSE public representative seat, "If you're going to set standards for other people, you've got to set a standard for yourself." "They have a blind spot when it comes to their own corporate governance," says Patrick McGurn, special counsel for Institutional Shareholder Services. "Their governance structure not only doesn't compare to that of listed companies on the NYSE; it wouldn't fare that well if compared to companies in the Far East or in emerging markets." Grasso sent a letter to the SEC last week indicating the Big Board will set up a committee to examine its corporate governance policies and will hold hearings on the issue in June.

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11678)	5/21/2003 6:39:54 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 19428

PEPSI, NO COKE.LOL-> Ex-Coke Manager Accuses Company of Fraud By MARK NIESSE .c The Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) - A former Coca-Cola manager claims in a lawsuit that company officials conducted a massive fraud using slush funds to boost equipment sales and rigged a marketing test of Frozen Coke at Burger King restaurants. The company said Matthew Whitley filed the suit after Coke refused a demand to pay him $44.4 million to prevent it. Whitley lost his job as finance director for supply management at the fountain division in March amid a reorganization that eliminated 1,000 jobs. The lawsuit also claims the company discriminates against minority employees and cooks its books with ``phantom'' deliveries of syrup that never reach their destinations. Whitley says he was fired for raising the concerns to Steven Heyer, Coke's president and chief operating officer. The fountain division handles sales of fountain-dispensed beverages to restaurants, movie theaters and other venues. ``Coke ran its fountain division by using off-the-books slush funds to cover up project failures, fraud to cheat customers into buying Coke products, lied about assets to cover up problems in the division and coercive threats against employees to force their participation in these activities,'' said Whitley's attorney, Marc Garber. Outside law and accounting firms are investigating the matter, company spokesman Ben Deutsch said. ``Until the investigation is complete, we cannot have a basis on which to respond to these allegations,'' Deutsch said in a statement. ``One has to wonder what is motivating him if he is unwilling to wait for the findings of these independent investigations? Maybe he is concerned that the facts will not support his allegations.'' Whitley, 37, accuses Atlanta-based Coke of giving its distributors $750 million in rebates, but accounting for the money as advertising expenses. Coke gives $1 billion for advertising to many businesses that use its fountain dispensers, but only about 25 percent of that is actually used, according to the lawsuit. The other $750 million is still listed as an advertising expense even though it amounts to a refund to the distributors, Whitley said. Coke's annual report says advertising expenses are reclassified as deductions from net revenues when consolidated financial statements are put together. The lawsuit, which does not specify damages, was filed in Atlanta on Monday. The suit also outlines how the leader of Coke's Burger King account signed off on a plan three years ago to influence the results of a test project in Virginia, which resulted in a $65 million investment by the restaurant in Frozen Coke. An internal company document filed as part of the lawsuit said the tactic was to hire an outside consultant to spend up to $10,000 to buy value meals at Burger Kings in Richmond, Va., boosting demand for Frozen Coke and other frozen drinks being promoted in the test market. Whitley further alleges that Coke had a ``slush fund'' to lower the cost of expensive iFountain machines so it would be easier to sell them to customers. He claimed officials had an iFountain supplier, Lancer Corp., overcharge for standard dispensers, making the iFountain machines more attractive. That amounted to assets being overstated by $5 million, the lawsuit says. Another claim is that Coke inflated revenues by having trucks drive around carrying soft drink syrup without delivering it, but still accounting for about $18 million in additional income. Whitley said he witnessed several occasions when Coke discriminated against minority employees by holding them to a higher standard than white employees. In 2000, Coke paid $192.5 million to settle a lawsuit by black employees who contended the company discriminated against them in pay, promotion and performance evaluations. Coke shares fell 38 cents Wednesday to close at $44.14 on the New York Stock Exchange. On the Net: coke.com 05/21/03 18:05 EDT

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11678)	5/22/2003 12:11:42 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

1998 Letter Warned About HealthSouth. House Investigators Find No Evidence of Follow-Up By Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 22, 2003; Page E01 Congressional investigators yesterday released a 1998 letter from an anonymous writer that warned auditors at Ernst & Young of serious accounting problems at HealthSouth Corp., about 41/2 years before regulators swooped down on the Alabama company. "You people and I have been hoodwinked," a self-described "fleeced shareholder" wrote in the letter, dated Nov. 11, 1998. "This note is all I can do about it. You all can do much more, if all you do is look into it to see if what I say is true." The letter writer raised questions about debt reserves at some HealthSouth rehabilitation hospitals, the company's handling of accounts receivable, and how the company booked revenue. Ernst & Young recently turned the letter over to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating HealthSouth's collapse. Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the committee, said the letter was "a road map leading to possible fraud" at HealthSouth and questioned why the charges were not investigated thoroughly. The Securities and Exchange Commission this year charged HealthSouth and its chief executive, Richard M. Scrushy, with a long-running, multibillion-dollar fraud. Eleven former HealthSouth executives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Scrushy has not been charged with a crime. He was fired March 31. Johnson said Ernst & Young officials recently told committee investigators that after receiving the letter in 1998, Ernst & Young auditors approached Michael D. Martin, who was HealthSouth's chief financial officer at the time, and William W. Horton, the company's general counsel. Horton told Ernst & Young that the company would investigate, Johnson said. When congressional investigators reviewed minutes of HealthSouth's board of directors from 1998 and 1999, they found no mention of the anonymous letter or an internal investigation, Johnson said. Martin has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. Horton has not been charged with a crime. A lawyer for HealthSouth criticized the committee for releasing the letter. "HealthSouth is fully cooperating with all government investigations," said Robert S. Bennett. "The selective leaking of material such as this letter is a terrible abuse of the committee's power and is irresponsible. Had the committee shown us the courtesy of telling us about the allegations, we could have made an inquiry into the facts. They should be ashamed of themselves." In a prepared statement, Ernst & Young said: "In response to the communication and at the time it was received in 1998, Ernst & Young conducted a review by individuals outside of the audit engagement team and, upon examination, determined the issues raised did not affect the presentation of HealthSouth's financial statements. Ernst & Young continues to work with the Committee and to cooperate with the Department of Justice and SEC investigations into the HealthSouth fraud." Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House committee, and Rep. James Greenwood (R-Pa.), head of the investigations subcommittee, will send letters this week requesting interviews with Dick Dandeurand, a retired Ernst & Young partner who handled the HealthSouth account in 1998; Martin; Horton; and HealthSouth board members. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11678)	5/22/2003 10:08:44 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

GRASSO'S PAY WAS CLOSER TO $15M By JENNY ANDERSON May 22, 2003 -- Big Board Chief Dick Grasso likely made as much as $15 million during the headiest days of the bull market, The Post has learned. Grasso's secret salary has been reported at $10 million - but that was in 2002, when his pay was cut. His bigger years were 2000 and 2001. Sources close to the matter say Grasso's monster salaries in the boom years helped him sock away the $80 million to $100 million he already has for retirement. Grasso has come under scrutiny because he is paid more like a Wall Street CEO than a regulator - and because his pay does not reflect the dramatic downturn that has hit the financial services industry. "The world has changed and they have not," said one person close to the Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange is a self-regulatory organization that monitors Wall Street's brokerage and trading firms as well as being a marketplace for companies that meet its listing requirements. More than 1.4 billion shares are traded daily on the exchange. The compensation committee of the exchange, which includes representatives of companies Grasso regulates, decides the chairman's pay. In doing so, they are said to use a compensation consultant who calculates how the exchange performed relative to its budget and peers. The consultant also looks at the salaries of comparable financial service CEOs - not other regulators. An exchange spokesman declined comment. Grasso partisans argue that as CEO he is more than worth his keep, having reinvented the exchange when it came under intense competition from exchanges abroad and the Nasdaq, and attracting record numbers of listings. Grasso is also widely credited with helped get the markets reopened after terrorist attacks on New York on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2002, the NYSE - a not-for-profit institution - earned $28.1 million, while total compensation costs totaled $521.5 million. The Nasdaq, in comparison, earned $50 million in 2002 and paid out $192.4 in compensation. The NYSE is under scrutiny for a number of corporate governance issues. Grasso sits on the board of companies the exchange regulates and is not required to disclose his compensation, though listed companies are required to disclose executive pay in proxy statements. In addition, the NYSE is currently investigating improper trading practices at a group of specialist firms that are run by individuals who sit on the NYSE board. The constitution of the NYSE requires that these specialist firms be represented on the board. Grasso's salary dwarfs that of other high-profile public figures, including the president of the United States, who makes $400,000; the head of the Federal Reserve Board, who makes $171,900; and the previous chairman of the Nasdaq, who made more than $1.4 million in 2002. The exchange informed SEC Chairman William Donaldson last week that it will examine its corporate governance

To: afrayem onigwecher who wrote (11678)	5/22/2003 10:08:44 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

GRASSO'S PAY WAS CLOSER TO $15M By JENNY ANDERSON May 22, 2003 -- Big Board Chief Dick Grasso likely made as much as $15 million during the headiest days of the bull market, The Post has learned. Grasso's secret salary has been reported at $10 million - but that was in 2002, when his pay was cut. His bigger years were 2000 and 2001. Sources close to the matter say Grasso's monster salaries in the boom years helped him sock away the $80 million to $100 million he already has for retirement. Grasso has come under scrutiny because he is paid more like a Wall Street CEO than a regulator - and because his pay does not reflect the dramatic downturn that has hit the financial services industry. "The world has changed and they have not," said one person close to the Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange is a self-regulatory organization that monitors Wall Street's brokerage and trading firms as well as being a marketplace for companies that meet its listing requirements. More than 1.4 billion shares are traded daily on the exchange. The compensation committee of the exchange, which includes representatives of companies Grasso regulates, decides the chairman's pay. In doing so, they are said to use a compensation consultant who calculates how the exchange performed relative to its budget and peers. The consultant also looks at the salaries of comparable financial service CEOs - not other regulators. An exchange spokesman declined comment. Grasso partisans argue that as CEO he is more than worth his keep, having reinvented the exchange when it came under intense competition from exchanges abroad and the Nasdaq, and attracting record numbers of listings. Grasso is also widely credited with helped get the markets reopened after terrorist attacks on New York on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2002, the NYSE - a not-for-profit institution - earned $28.1 million, while total compensation costs totaled $521.5 million. The Nasdaq, in comparison, earned $50 million in 2002 and paid out $192.4 in compensation. The NYSE is under scrutiny for a number of corporate governance issues. Grasso sits on the board of companies the exchange regulates and is not required to disclose his compensation, though listed companies are required to disclose executive pay in proxy statements. In addition, the NYSE is currently investigating improper trading practices at a group of specialist firms that are run by individuals who sit on the NYSE board. The constitution of the NYSE requires that these specialist firms be represented on the board. Grasso's salary dwarfs that of other high-profile public figures, including the president of the United States, who makes $400,000; the head of the Federal Reserve Board, who makes $171,900; and the previous chairman of the Nasdaq, who made more than $1.4 million in 2002. The exchange informed SEC Chairman William Donaldson last week that it will examine its corporate governance