Well, gee whiz, you don't say.
This scam artist still owns the Padres? Not up to the standards of anything but the Church of Ponzi Priesthood I would say.
Nice analysis, Steve. Gramps is gonna love this.
Tenure at Peregrine Haunts Richardson
By Thomas J. Cole / 10/27/02
Albuquerque Journal Investigative Reporter
Public reports filed by Peregrine Systems while Bill Richardson was a director showed the company was headed toward possible failure at a time it spent millions of dollars on bonuses and golf-club memberships for executives.
Investors in the San Diego-based software company, including pension and school funds in New Mexico, have suffered losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and the company has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Richardson, a Democrat and apparent front-runner in the New Mexico governor's race, said Friday he wasn't aware of the company's problems at the time because they were hidden by the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
But he acknowledged in an interview while campaigning in western New Mexico on Friday that he missed board meetings and didn't read key corporate reports while serving as a director.
Richardson said he "didn't have the time" to read corporate reports or attend all board meetings but said he was confident he had fulfilled his legal duties as a director to the corporation and to its shareholders.
Richardson, who served as a director from February 2001 to June of this year, said he was recruited by Stephen Gardner, who was then chairman, president and chief executive officer of Peregrine. Gardner is a brother-in-law of Richardson's wife, Barbara, and one of the executives who received bonuses.
The company since May has disclosed accounting irregularities, laid off at least 1,400 workers and filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection while attempting to reorganize its finances. Peregrine is also under investigation by Congress, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company has blamed its troubles on Arthur Andersen, which it fired in April and has sued for $1 billion. Arthur Andersen, in turn, has pointed the finger at Peregrine's board of directors.
Some shareholders have joined in class-action lawsuits against Peregrine, and Richardson is a defendant in some of those suits.
John Sanchez, the Republican nominee for governor, has made an issue of Richardson's connection to Peregrine, saying in a series of television advertisements that Richardson was "an insider who got paid, while honest people got hurt."
Richardson has said he was paid $10,000 by Peregrine for attending board meetings.
He said in the interview that he was also awarded stock options for his work as a director but didn't exercise them. "Now they're worth nothing," he said.
Richardson has countered in his commercials that he helped to uncover the accounting irregularities at Peregrine by voting to replace Arthur Andersen with the firm of KPMG, which found the problems.
Fighting Shareholder Suits
That's encouraging