VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY SUED PERSONALLY FOR ALLEGED STOCK FRAUD(By Judicial Watch)

(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.

Hey deport, can you find those numbers on JW? You know, the ones that show he took in over $26 million in donations and spent less than $3 million on legal action?

Well according an article running just the past couple of days it stated his donations had dropped to some $15 million so who knows what 2001 looked like. I"ve not seen the form 990 for 2001. However the other info for 2000 you asked about......

2000 JW form 990

$25,935,456 Direct Public support
$13,297,454 (51%) Fundraising
$ 4,172,968 (16%) Educating the public
$ 1,240,262 (4.7%) Legal action providing representation or acting in capacity of Amicus

Thought this was a joke at first. Unfortunately, it isn't.

Larry Klayman can sue anyone he wishes to sue but this is soooo transparent as a publicity ploy timed to capitalize on the CEO scandals that it's pathetic. Suing the VP is rather outrageous but not if JW has something to base the suit on. I doubt it does but we'll see.

Meanwhile, knowing Larry Klayman 's track record I doubt Dick Cheney is losing any sleep over this stupid suit and as Miss Marple suggested, The Vice President should counter-sue - but he won't. Too much class, something Klayman wouldn't recognize if it bit him.

By Jonathan D. Salant
The Associated Press

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 1 — Republican vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney said today he was “fully prepared to forfeit” oil-company stock options that he would otherwise continue to hold after taking office if he and George W. Bush win in November.

Cheney made the statement as he prepared to release his financial disclosure forms and 10 years of income tax returns.

“In order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, I am fully prepared to forfeit any options that have not vested by the time I assume office,” said Cheney, who recently stepped down as the head of Dallas-based Halliburton Co., the world’s largest oil services company.

Cheney, who was chairman and chief executive of the company, left with more than $13.6 million worth of stock and options, some of which could not be sold yet. Options allow someone to buy a company’s stock at a preset price.

Some have urged him not to retain the options because Halliburton’s stock price could be affected by actions taken by a Bush-Cheney administration. Unlike stock, options could not be placed in a blind trust, where the recipient has no control over his or her investments.

“It’s a situation where national concerns are mixed with business concerns,” Peter Eisner, managing director at the Center for Public Integrity, a government ethics advocacy group, said last month.

Besides his Halliburton stock, Cheney also holds options granted by Procter & Gamble, the giant consumer products company. They also would not take effect until after Inauguration Day.

Cheney said he would set up a blind trust if elected vice president.

Golden Parachute
He received a multimillion-dollar retirement package from Halliburton, the company he ran for five years. He retained options on more than a million shares he could buy at prices ranging from $21 to $54 each. But many of those options would take effect only after the inauguration.

The tax returns of Cheney, a former congressman and defense secretary, show what a difference the transition into the private sector made.

In 1990, while defense secretary under President Bush, he and wife Lynne reported an adjusted gross income of $225,196 and paid $47,332 in income taxes. In 1999, his last full year as head of Halliburton, Cheney and his wife reported an adjusted gross income of $4.4 million and paid $1.7 million in taxes.

Adjusted gross income is the amount of salaries, interest, dividends, capital gains, rents, and other income, minus deductions for things such as contributions to retirement plans.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/Cheney_halliburton000901.html

So, Cheney exercised his Halliburton stock options, as much as was allowed by his vesting schedule, in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, and prepared to forfeit those he couldn't sell. He did this in August of 2000.

Had he held on to those options, I'm sure Klayman would have sued him for having a conflict of interest.

Oh, and another thing, Hey Daschole...why don't you disclose your income and your wife's lobbying income? Ya scum!

Klayman is truly a clymer. This is proof positive.

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