Meanwhile, Lucent's stock has been destroyed. Even the matter of Aversano the Whistleblower has vaporized, culminating early this year in a settlement with deeply secret terms. Until the Aversano-Plunkett news came along, no one had even seemed about to be nailed by the SEC, which, though it cannot bring criminal charges against wrongdoers, can make their lives miserable with civil sanctions, such as forever barring them from big jobs in public companies. It is now 2 1/2 years later, and no one has donned stripes or even been indicted. I think you could see some people ending up in striped suits in this one." Said a senior regulator then to FORTUNE: "Wow, $700 million. So when Lucent disclosed its $700 million overstatement of revenues, for a single quarter, the figure looked-and was-enormous. We didn't know in late 2000 about the colossal scandals to come-about Enron, or HealthSouth, or the unimaginable $11 billion of accounting fraud at WorldCom. So now this mighty company was saying, just like some two-bit player, that it had cooked the books. Employees reacted by manufacturing cotton-candy "revenues" and the profits that tag along. He blamed his managers for poor execution when the problem had deeper roots. McGinn, Lucent's CEO, a salesman to the core-and a man who had just used $45 million of Lucent's money to build a golf course near its headquarters!-kept optimistically talking about "recovery" and driving to make it happen. Behind the scenes there was denial: Richard A. By 2000, Lucent had more shareholders, 5.3 million, than any company around.īut by then Lucent also was losing market share and missing its earnings targets. Spun off from AT&T in 1996 and taking with it icon Bell Labs, Lucent caught the telecom boom just right, riding it to $258 billion in market value. The headlines rolled then in a size and blackness that fit this company's fame. ![]() It was way back in December 2000 that Lucent reported it had overstated its revenues for its latest quarter by nearly $700 million. And unfortunately so-for it is a case that offers no shortage of morals for today's shareholders. For a long spell Lucent had been the accounting blowup that time forgot. The notion that she was now in the government's legal cross hairs was not only a strange twist in a years-long SEC investigation, but also-surprise, surprise-an actual new chapter in a once-riveting corporate scandal that had seemed to fade from notice. Aversano, once a high-up Lucent sales executive, had made headlines as a whistleblower who claimed she'd been fired for trying to stop the company from making misstatements about its prospects. The news, however, was far bigger than the play it got. The New York Times didn't chime in at all. And the Washington Post covered it in a single paragraph. The following day, the Bergen Record, based not far from Lucent's New Jersey headquarters, noted the Journal story in under 300 words. On an otherwise quiet Friday the 13th in June, the Wall Street Journal reported in its B section that the Securities and Exchange Commission had given two former Lucent employees, Nina Aversano and Bill Plunkett, what are called "Wells notices," alerts that they are likely to be the target of a civil action by the government. Twice-Daily Quizzes | Participate in the Knowledge Master quizzes to compete with other players on the leaderboards and earn special buffs.(FORTUNE Magazine) – Unless you are a voracious reader of the news, it was a story you may well have missed.Rewarding Crafting | Choose to become a Blacksmith, Tailor, Alchemist, Jeweler, Card Designer, or Machinist, create items and advance your crafting skills.Customizable Dungeons | Collect and group together different Star Cores to create your own dungeons.Fun Cupid System | Use the Cupid system to find your perfect counterpart.Unique Dance System | Upload your own music, create your own dances, and sync with other players to create a flash mob.Innovative Zodiac System | Utilize your Zodiac sign to determine your Zodiac skill path and transform into special Zodiac armor. ![]()
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