Posted on 07/09/2002 4:44:40 PM PDT by Paul_E_Ester
(Washington, D.C.) Judicial Watch, the group that investigates and prosecutes corruption by government officials, announced today that it is filing a shareholders suit in Dallas, Texas, against Vice President Dick Cheney and the other involved directors of Halliburton, as well as Halliburton itself, for alleged fraudulent accounting practices which resulted in the overvaluation of the company’s shares, thereby deceiving investors and others.
The suit comes one day after President George W. Bush, who himself is enmeshed in allegations of insider trading when he was an executive, who sat on the audit committee of Harken Energy Company, announced a “plan” to crack down on corporate fraud. Ironically, it would appear that the President’s rush to propose more regulation of private industry is intended to deflect attention away from his and his Vice President’s own alleged improper business practices. President Bush has maintained that he was cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Others have countered that the head of the agency was then an appointee of his father, President George H.W.Bush.
President Clinton and the Democratic Party used a similar gambit when they were caught taking money illegally from foreign donors, including the Communist Chinese. Instead of prosecuting vigorously the Clintons and other guilty politicians, new campaign finance laws were proposed to deflect attention away from alleged crimes.
“Whether it is the Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, or now the Halliburton and Harken scandals, there is a dangerous intersection between politicians of all stripes, Democrat and Republican, attempting to feed at the trough of business greed. As is true of the Clinton scandals, the American people cannot look the other way just because the President and Vice President are allegedly involved. Indeed, Judicial Watch has already sued Democrat and Republican officials in the Enron and Global Crossing scandals. To look the other way for the Vice President would be to set a precedent that the Washington elite are above the law. This cannot be permitted if our democracy is to survive,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
In 1995 Halliburton was prosecuted and forced to plead guilty to trading with Libya, a terrorist state on the U.S. watch list.
A press conference will be held in Miami at 9:00 A.M. at the Sheraton Hotel at 495 Brickell Avenue to announce and detail this suit.
I wonder how the IRS thing is going? This will be years or at least sometime before it gets much play in any court room. Cheney may not even be VP by then if all the specualtion is that he's not going to be on the ticket in 04.
I'm not sure who knew what among these CEOs but I do think if they cooked the books they need to be held accountable and to the fullest extent..... Cheney or not. However that said, I'm not sure that he would have known if faulty accounting was being done as that most likely would have come from the financial side trying to enhance their position.
Oh, come on, after his stellar string of successful suits, one error... oh, never mind
You know what, you're absolutely right..
LOL! On my post for understatement of the year.
(Double muddy to the 50th power! Comes a little closer, but still no cigar all things considered.)
Shhhhh.. You're embarassing Larry..
Now stop it.
Halliburton's case I am not familiar with, but if Cheney was involved in something shady I will eat my hat.
Also, I really resent the inference on insider trading with president Bush, since that was investigated and discounted by the SEC, and has been brought up FOUR separate times by the Rats, even though they know there is nothing there.
I hope Cheney counter-sues Klayman and takes him to the cleaners.
And I thought Klayman was stupid before. Now I know he's a complete...um...ninny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.