Posted on 01/10/2003 4:41:24 AM PST by Liz
The articles you cite are drive-by swipes relying on the reader's envy and class warfare to obscure the false logic, they are not evidence -- that's the difference between the press's IQ and the real rigor of a prosecution where the accused actually get to defend themselves. Fancy that!
-- no crime here, or am I missing something you spot as illegal? --
Corporate executives who scam investors or profit by cooking company books will be exposed and given "hard time" in prison under regulations President Bush signed into law Tuesday. Accounting firms are now forbidden from offering consulting services to clients if it posses a conflict of interest, and for the first time an independent oversight board has been established to oversee the industry. Chief executives under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 would have to vouch personally, under penalty of law, for the honesty of earnings reports. Those reports must now be given quarterly.
--and this means? what? Do you know that laws don't apply retroactively?
Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot gave his Democratic counterpart Terry McAuliffe a clean bill of health Saturday night on one of the Democratic Party's biggest political liabilities - McAuliffe's suspicious involvement with the now collapsed communications giant Global Crossing.
In 1999 McAuliffe sold his shares in the book-cooking communications company, reaping an $18 million profit on an initial investment of $100,000.
-- so -- you offer this as proof that he does not have a clean bill of health? I don't follow?!
The suit was filed on behalf of Global Crossing shareholders who have brought claims of fraud, civil conspiracy and violations of the California Corporations, Business and Professions Code.
Former defense secretary and Global Crossing board member William Cohen is among the suit’s defendants for allegedly conspiring to "pump and dump” Global Crossing stock, and for allegedly corruptly awarding contracts. This is the same William Cohen who, as a member of the Senate Iran-Contra investigating committee in the late 1980s, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of piety.
Finally, the suit names Li Ka-Shing as a defendant, along with his Global Crossing affiliate, Asia Global Crossing. The extra eye-opening significance of this is that Li Ka-Shing, a Hong Kong businessman, is an agent of the Chinese communist government, and he is now seeking majority control over the entire corporation. "If Li Ka-Shing gains control over Global Crossing, that would make the Chinese government the phone company for the Pentagon and other sensitive agencies,”
-- see my earlier post on the difference between civil versus criminal liability
"In March 1999, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain wrote a letter to the FCC raising questions" about plans by Global Crossing's competitors - MCI Worldcom, Sprint and AT&T Corp. - to lay broadband cable under the Pacific Ocean, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Within days, "20 employees of Global Crossing, including [company co-chairman Lodwrick] Cook and [Gary] Winnick, contributed a total of $30,000 to Mr. McCain's presidential campaign fund," the paper said.
Despite the appearance of a quid pro quo, the Senate maverick said the campaign jackpot was unrelated to any favors he might have done for Global Crossing, explaining that the helpful letter was prompted by his concern that the MCI-AT&T-Sprint consortium might stifle broadband competition.
-- I hate that sanctimonious McCain, but this is legal absent more info
Global Crossing, the largest telecom company in U.S. history to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has agreed to a buyout by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Ltd
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, has sent letters to President Bush, the attorney general, the Department of Defense and the investigative arm of Congress demanding an inquiry into the plan, according to Al Santoli, national security adviser to Rohrabacher. "The purchase of Global Crossing by Li Ka-Shing is another step as his role of a stalker for the People's Republic of China," stated Santoli.
Li Ka-Shing is also part owner of a firm involved in the illegal transfer of missile technology to the Chinese army. The Commerce documents show that Li owns one-third of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings, or AsiaSat.
According to Aviation Week and Space Technology, AsiaSat is also partly owned by the Chinese army. AsiaSat satellites regularly carry "military communications" traffic for PLA units and Chinese military-owned companies.
U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin pleaded guilty to 30 counts of illegal missile technology exports to AsiaSat. Lockheed Martin agreed to pay the U.S. government $13 million in fines for the illegal transfer of "kick-motor" technology to AsiaSat in order to avoid export restrictions. Despite his hostile attitude toward democracy, Li Ka-Shing met frequently with the Clinton administration.
--Interesting, but what does this have to do with Winnick?! Or are we in the tin-foil hat zone now? This is what I mean by innuendo -- ther is no logical connection but you imply that there is.
WASHINGTON -- Global Crossing Ltd. Chairman Gary Winnick said today he was not informed about the fiber optic company's deteriorating financial condition before he sold $123 million in stock.
Winnick said he took no part in high-level meetings in the spring of 2001 at which executives warned about lagging revenues. He denied that Thomas Casey, then Global Crossing's chief executive, mentioned looming problems in their near-daily conversations.
"The suggestion I sold stock based on information not readily available is not correct," Winnick told a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Winnick defended his sale of 10 percent of his Global Crossing holdings in May 2001 as appropriate. Winnick said he relied on the public assurances of the company's health provided by Casey and others.
Last week, a former Global Crossing executive testified to the same panel that he knew Casey's comments to the public were misleading.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee chairman, told Winnick his stated ignorance of the financial condition of the company he founded was "a little hard for us to understand."
"The head of the company is about to make a sale and he never hears any of the warnings," Tauzin said, noting that Global Crossing stock started a slide around the time of the sale that ended in the company's bankruptcy filing in January.
Congressional investigators are looking into whether Global Crossing and Qwest Communications engaged in "sham transactions designed to boost revenues" and thus give investors and financial analysts a misleading picture of the companies' financial health.
Winnick is one of five current and former Global Crossing executives testifying at the congressional hearing Tuesday. Qwest Communications chief operating officer Afshin Mohebbi and former chief executive officer Joseph Nacchio also were scheduled.
The committee earlier heard from a Global Crossing employee who lost her entire $86,000 retirement savings.
Lenette Crumpler of Rochester, N.Y., said she believed in Global Crossing because its executives provided frequent reassurances.
"That's why I held on, believing the statements the Global Crossing executives made when the stock was failing," Crumpler said.
Later on Tuesday, Winnick pledged to donate $25 million of his own money toward the retirement plans for Global Crossing employees.
Documents released Monday show Winnick was involved in trying to bolster his company by June 2001, shortly after the stock sale, the last of several sales that brought him $734 million.
Global Crossing has since been bought by two Asian companies for $250 million, a fraction of the $22 billion in assets listed in the bankruptcy filing.
Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pa., the investigative panel's chairman, said his committee's review of documents and interviews with Global Crossing employees have established that Winnick "was well aware of Global Crossing's strategy to use an ever increasing number of swaps to meet Wall Street's revenue expectations."
Lawyers for Winnick and the company have consistently painted a picture of a ceremonial chairman who was not active in day-to-day affairs, including the company's participation in swaps of capacity between telecommunications companies, said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Qwest said last week it was reversing about $950 million in revenue booked from swaps of capacity on its network and may have to adjust $531 million more in revenue from other sales.
Winnick's efforts to bolster his fading company included reaching out to Enron Corp., the energy-trading company that also traded telecommunications bandwidth, and other companies to help Global Crossing close $400 million in deals in the last half of June 2001. "I spoke to (then-Enron chief executive) Jeff Skilling and there are three people vying for the business -- we're one of them," Winnick wrote in an e-mail to Global Crossing chief executive Thomas Casey in June 2001.
In June 2000, before the glut of fiber-optic capacity soured investors on Global Crossing and other companies, a Global Crossing executive told Winnick, Casey and co-chairman Lodwrick Cook that they should move quickly to sell the company.
"The stock market can be fooled, but not forever, and it is fundamentally insightful and always unforgiving of being misled," wrote Leo Hindery, who briefly served as Global Crossing's chief executive.
And he sold 10% of his stock when -- you imply -- he knew it would tank. SO that means -- he kept 90%?? Do you think, if you were really certain that fraud was committed and the stock would tank, that you'd retain 90% of your holdings?
The author of the article you cite doesn't care that the facts don't hold together -- he's just trying to throw enough mud in the hopes that something might stick.
Global Crossing Ltd. Chairman Gary Winnick said today he was not informed about the fiber optic company's deteriorating financial condition before he sold $123 million in stock
I do not believe him.
"And he sold 10% of his stock when -- you imply -- he knew it would tank. SO that means -- he kept 90%?? Do you think if you were really certain that fraud was committed and the stock would tank, that you'd retain 90% of your holdings?"
This shows your lack of understanding of the whole situation. There is no way to dump insider stock on the market. Not the size of his holdings.
"Documents released Monday show Winnick was involved in trying to bolster his company by June 2001, shortly after the stock sale, the last of several sales that brought him $734 million." That's 734...
How much stock did Winnock have left to dump? You say 90%? Is that enough reason to pump his issue? Documents released, I guess since you never saw these "Documents released" it is just more innuendo?
So your prove it to me stance stuck on legalese comes down to two things:
1.) Was Winnock guilty of bailing out of holdings because he knew the party was over? Did he know that GC was finished? Rep. James Greenwood, R-Pa thought so. He was dealing with the facts and Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee chairman believed that Winnock was full of crap. He was the chairman of the subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He also had the FACTS. More innuendo?
To me, what I believe is that this is an RNC/DNC issue. The dirt that would fly if this went to trial would be too much. You need no tin foil hat here. GC greased both sides of the aisle. Winnock screwed millions of people and is not going to have to prove he knew nothing of the demise of HIS company as he bailed out of as much of his holdings as allowed by the law. His actions are proof that his best interest was himself and his close pals.
“The company also moved up its last payday by a week, so executives and others still employed could get paid before the company declared bankruptcy, while severance checks to employees already laid off weren’t paid or bounced” innuendo?
“the company made last-minute lump-sum executive pension payouts totaling $15 million.”
2.)The same committee asked: "Questions have now arisen whether the company, applying accounting principles used in the telecommunications sector, falsely inflated revenues and its stock price when it swapped fiber-optic capacity with other networks.”
This will never see a courtroom. Is that ok? I do not think so.
McAuliffe in the 1990s turned a $100,000 investment in Global Crossing into an $18 million profit. Then there was a $400 million dollar contract, set in motion by the Clinton Administration, awarded to Global Crossing by the Pentagon. Winnick later donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Presidential Library. Nothing there? No Blue Stained dress. Stinks if you ask me.
One more thing and I am going to hang it up.
Was it Clintionian to let this scumbag off the hook with a Christmas eve announcement? Christmas eve? Where did they learn to do that?
"Meet the new boss same as the old boss"
I need no proof that it's a duck btw...
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