Bill Richardson's Enron

Washington Times ^ | October 1, 2002 | David N. Bossie

[woofie]

The story is all too familiar. Several months ago, before WorldCom and in the wake of Enron and Global Crossing, Peregrine Systems, Inc., a lesser-known San Diego-based software company, announced it had overstated its earnings by $100 million

[woofie]

Hey New Mexico...lets get this guy out of here....we might have Clinton and the whole gang down here if Bill is elected Gov....

[backhoe]

Locator bttt^

[Doctor Stochastic]

This may drag is vote total down to the 75% level.

[CedarDave]

Upon the announcement of Peregrine's misdeeds last May, Bill Clinton's former energy secretary requested, through a letter to the company, an investigation into the accounting improprieties — a wise political tact and the obvious first move in beginning to distance himself from a company that would soon implode. Mr. Richardson, declaring publicly his concern as an "independent" board member, seemed to clear himself of any Peregrine taint. His letter was covered in New Mexico's newspapers, and he stated outright, "I had no involvement because I was what was called an outside director." Mr. Richardson resigned from the board in June.

Good going, Woofie. I've wondered about those ads by Bill about how he wrote letters asking for an accounting investigation. Obviously very self-serving; he knew the issue would be brought out during the election campaign and he wanted to get out ahead of the "problem".

Adding "New Mexico" to topic list.

[FryingPan101]

Too late. My neighboring state, New Mexico, has decided it wants a crook for it's next governor. That way there will be no surprises. What a slimy crook he is.

[woofie]

Im sitting in your neighboring state and while I admit everyone says Richardson will win ,and I hear nothing but his ads on the radio...it aint over till its over.

[woofie]

Ping to my fellow New Mexicans

[Pushi]

You may be wrong. I read something the other day that said that he started the dirty campaign ads when he found out that his lead over Sanchez was disappearing. After all, he was the one early on who said all the ads should be clean.

[CougarGA7]

We need hard facts on this. Maybe there's something in those SEC documents that could be usefull. If we dont have documentation of what his role was in this company, he will be able to spin it so that the voters in this state will just ignore it. Unfortunately, most of the voters in this state are just that stupid that we need something we can slap them in the face with.

[CedarDave]

I'm much more worried about the Pubs losing District 2 to a Rat. KOB poll last night had Pub Pearce only up by 2 points with lots undecided. Rat ads are aimed at rural voters -- Smith supports 2nd Amendment rights, small business, etc. I've got a Pearce sign in my yard and a sticker on my truck.

[CPT Clay]

Bump the dems are a crime organization.

[GOPJ]

bump

[backhoe]

I have a file of links on Richardson among these:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/723210/posts

Liars-- and Sleaze, Incorporated... ( my files on the clintons and friends )

various links | 7-27-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[MickMan51]

Hey, thanks for the ping. This guy is dirty ! !

[KQQL]

If he is dirty, then NM will for sure make him the Next GOV...

[malia]

1. Peregrine Systems, Inc., a San Diego-based software company, announces overstated earnings by $100 million. New auditors (Anderson is fired) report Peregrine's overstated earnings as high as $250 million.

2.Richardson's brother-inlaw, Stephen Gardner, was Peregrine's chairman at the time of the accounting troubles.

3. Richardson appears at a Peregrine-sponsored Washington conference, endorses its new Crisis Management initiative, a homeland security-geared software package that organizes emergency resources during a natl crisis.

After November 5, 2002 will this type of exposure be illegal 30 days before poll date.

[kcvl]

SEC probes tech company once linked to Richardson

By Gilbert Gallegos
Tribune Reporter

New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Bill Richardson recently served on the board of directors for a California-based software company that is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The San Diego company, Peregrine Systems, has admitted to accounting "irregularities" totalling as much as $100 million, according to a news release from Peregrine.

That admission, announced May 6, prompted the SEC investigation.

It also led to the resignation of the company's top officials, including Chief Executive Officer Stephen Gardner, who is related to Richardson's wife, Barbara, by marriage.

Richardson downplayed his role with the company, which ended June 5 when he resigned from the board. He said he resigned from all corporate boards he previously served on so he could focus on his race for governor.

"Really, I had no involvement because I was what was called an outside director," Richardson said in an interview Friday. "I had no stock or made no stock purchases, and I was unaware of some of the accounting disputes."

Richardson said he attended about five meetings of the board of directors during the 16 months he was with Peregrine. He said he learned about the accounting problems and the ensuing SEC investigation from newspaper articles.

Richardson, a Democrat, faces Republican State Rep. John Sanchez in the Nov. 5 general election.

Richardson said he was initially recruited by the board to serve as a director in February 2001. He was later elected by shareholders to serve on the board.

The company first identified Gardner and Richardson as brothers-in-law in a proxy statement sent to shareholders before the September 2001 board election.

Richardson said Gardner is his wife's brother-in-law. He said he was not informed by Gardner of any of the company's problems.

Gardner, whose San Diego phone number is not listed, could not be reached for comment.

Peregrine was accused by independent auditor, KPMG, of "possible fraud" after the company fired the auditing firm in May, according to news reports published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Peregrine had hired KPMG to complete an audit after firing Arthur Anderson, the embattled accounting firm that was involved in the scandal involving the collapse of Enron last year.

But Peregrine later fired KPMG after the firm identified $100 million in overstated earnings. Peregrine explained that about $35 million of the questionable earnings were the result of previous deals between the company and KPMG's consulting division, according to the Union-Tribune.

Peregrine's stock has tumbled since the May 6 revelation, and the company has attempted to reorganize its operations, including laying off 1,400 employees and borrowing $56 million, according to the Union-Tribune.

The company, including the board, faces more than a dozen lawsuits filed mostly by shareholders and laid-off employees.

Richardson said he was recruited to serve on Peregrine's board because of his national and international contacts he developed while serving as a congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Energy.

"My role was basically that I attended some board meetings," Richardson said. "I was just not involved in the, obviously, the day-to-day functions."

Richardson said he also was not involved in decisions to lay off nearly half of the company's employees.

Peregrine is one of several U.S. companies that have been involved in recent accounting scandals related to inflated earnings.

In many cases, company executives have been blamed for the problems.

But it is usually difficult to know whether boards of directors are culpable for company mismanagement, said Ken Baker, an associate dean at the University of New Mexico's Anderson School of Management.

Baker said he has personally served on a corporate board where the CEO expected board members to act as rubber stamps for all actions by the executive.

"But if you're a member of the board of directors, you have some legal responsibility," Baker said, noting that he is not familiar with the problems at Peregrine. "You can't be passive. Ultimately, a board should basically have that kind of leadership role."

Barry Gerhart, professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the board's top job is to look out for shareholders' interests.

"But in some cases they (boards) are criticized because they may be looking out more for the interest of managers than for shareholders," said Gerhart, who also emphasized that he is only nominally aware of Peregrine's situation.

"In cases where the top executive has a lot of influence, who determines who is appointed to the board, then the board may feel at the debt of that person. And the board may not take its responsibility to shareholders as seriously as it should."

[L.N. Smithee]

Bill Richardson is a walking disaster. There is NO cabinet member in my lifetime (back to the early 60's) who was so thoroughly incompetent at whatever he was assigned. The short list of screwups from Richardson are government-assisted fire devastation and lost/purloined nuclear secrets. I can't believe anyone takes this guy seriously.

[NRA2BFree]

Thanks for the ping woofie! 8-)
He's dirty just like Clinton, but people will still vote for him, just like they did Clinton.

[Redleg Duke]

I just visited my Mom in Las Cruces, and listening to the RAT attack ads on the radio is enough to make one hurl! They are letting all of the stops loose on this one. Clintonian to the extreme!