American Way Of Cooking
Barry Marjanovich
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Barry Marjanovich
Tuesday Sep 17 2002
Tyco details litany of excess by disgraced head
By Adrian Michaels in New York
Dennis Kozlowski, the disgraced former head of Tyco, saw the value of
one of his properties increase after his company had made a $1.3m
charitable donation to a conservation foundation.
The revelation is contained in further allegations released on Tuesday
by the conglomerate he once headed. Tyco has already sued Mr Kozlowski
over a pattern of allegedly improper enrichment over a period of years.
Among Tuesday's details are further abuses of company funds to decorate
an apartment on New York's prestigious Fifth Avenue "with appointments
and furnishings lacking any legitimate b usiness justification". Tyco
said Mr Kozlowski had procured a litany of excess including a $15,000
dog umbrella stand, a $6,000 shower curtain, coat hangers worth $2,900,
and a notebook allegedly costing $1,650.
Mr Kozlowski frequently blurred the line between personal and company
transactions and donations, using "millions of dollars of company funds
to pay for his personal interests and act ivities", the company said.
This included a lavish $1m-plus birthday celebration for his wife in
Sardinia. "Mr Kozlowski caused Tyco to make donations or pledges to
charitable organisations totalling over $106m. Of this total, at least
$43m in donations were represented...as M r Kozlowski's personal
donations or were made for...personal benefit."
Tyco said Mr Kozlowski had donated $1.3m to the Nantucket Conservation
Foundation. Part of the donation purchased swamp next to the former
chairman's estate. This precluded developmen t of the land and so
increased the value of Mr Kozlowski's home, the company said.
Henry
Corporation head who happens to be a crook. Don't you blame individuals for
crimes they commit or do you just smear good and bad with the same brush.
If a Croat rapist- and there are Croat rapists- you don't say Croats way of
raping! Or do you Marjanovich?
The truth is many thousands of American Corporate heads are honest and have
integrity. Or is honesty and integrity not to be mentioned about Americans?
Henry
Barry Marjanovich wrote:
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And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key
Barry Marjanovich
Barry Marjanovich
Barry Marjanovich
http://www.citizenworks.org/enron/corp-scandal.php
Barry Marjanovich
Barry Marjanovich
Wed Sep 18, 2002
By Greg Cresci
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. , one of Wall Street's
premier firms, said on Wednesday it fired two top executives for
refusing to testify in a government probe into Enron deals.
Merrill said it terminated Vice Chairman Thomas Davis, the firm's former
investment banking head, and Schuyler Tilney, head of Merrill's energy
and power group, as part of a policy requiring employees to cooperate
fully with regulatory and law enforcement investigations.
The move represents Merrill's desire to distance itself from the Enron
debacle, which has shaken investor confidence worldwide and raised
questions about Wall Street's role in complex financing arrangements.
Tilney, who reportedly had close personal relationships with top brass
at Enron, was put on administrative leave by Merrill in July after he
said he would not testify to Congress.
In a brief statement, Merrill noted it was unaware of any evidence that
its employees acted improperly in Enron dealings and said it is
cooperating with all ongoing investigations.
"There's a heightened level of sensitivity to these issues," said Robert
Sobhani, an analyst at Banc of America Securities. "I think we'll see
more companies acting this swiftly in the future as they try to control
damage that recent scandals have created."
Davis, 49, and Tilney, 46, joined Merrill in 1977 and 1983,
respectively. Both have declined to testify in investigations by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of
Justice into financial deals started by Enron in 1999.
Texas-based Enron -- once the nation's biggest electricity and natural
gas trading outfit -- filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001
after a rapid collapse that cost investors more than $50 billion.
Merrill has said its dealings with the energy giant were limited. In
July, it said they included a $7 million investment in a company set up
to operate energy generation barges. The firm also said it was a private
placement agent for an Enron- linked partnership known as LJM2, a
venture seen as a key target of a Congressional inquiry.
Merrill said in a statement in late July that it "strongly believes its
dealings with Enron and LJM2 were appropriate and proper based on what
we knew at the time."
Tilney was instrumental in the barges venture. His wife, Elizabeth, was
an Enron executive and a close associate of its former chief executive
Ken Lay, sources familiar with matter have said.
A Merrill spokesman declined to comment about the two bankers' severance
packages.
"There are no new facts and Merrill Lynch has been consistent in stating
that it's not aware of any evidence that its employees acted improperly
in their dealings with Enron," Tilney's lawyer, Robert Trout, told
Reuters. "Mr. Tilney did not do anything improper."
The U.S. government is looking into Enron's dealings with major banks,
including Merrill, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. .
Barry Marjanovich
Barry Marjanovich
Thursday Sep 19 2002
Restatement may not affect WorldCom bankruptcy
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in London and Adrian Michaels in New York
A move by WorldCom on Friday to restate financial accounts by more than
$2bn is not likely to affect the collapsed long-distance group's
bankruptcy proceedings, according to people involved in the matter.
The company is expected to meet with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on Friday to discuss its third accounting restatement in
three months, raising the scale of accounting improprieties at the group
to $9bn. The company is also expected to discuss plans to take a
goodwill writedown of as much as $50bn.
But unlike the $7bn fraud that was revealed earlier this summer,
Friday's restatement is likely to involve accounting issues that in the
past were open for interpretation - such as merger and acquisition
accounting and asset writedowns.
It is an important distinction for the company's creditors and
bondholders, who are ultimately concerned with WorldCom's cash position
and future earnings projections.
The move to provide more accurate accounts could also speed up
negotiations between the company and its bondholders for a
debt-for-equity swap.
While bondholders have pointed out that the additional restatements do
add more uncertainty to the future prospects of the company, they are
more concerned with WorldCom's ability to retain its contracts and not
lose more customers.
Looming questions about the breadth of accounting improprieties at the
company have made it impossible for creditors to assess the level of
debt the company could sustain moving forward and realistic income
projections.
By willingly correcting overly-aggressive accounting strategies of the
past, WorldCom may also be protecting itself from a full scale
indictment of the company by the Department of Justice - thereby
avoiding a fate similar to that of Arthur Andersen, the collapsed
auditor of bankrupt energy trader Enron.
Barry Marjanovich
Barry Marjanovich
Kozlowski Posts $10 Million Bail
Fri Sep 20, 2002
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dennis Kozlowski, charged with looting $600 million
from Tyco International Inc. when he was the conglomerate's chairman, on
Friday posted $10 million in bail with money from his ex-wife.
But lead prosecutor John Moscow, as expected, said he would move next
Friday to determine whether the money was gained as part of the fraud
Kozlowski was charged with last week, which led prosecutors to freeze
his assets.
"We are challenging the source and will be speaking with Kozlowski's
ex-wife, Angie, before we will accept the money," Moscow told Reuters.
Former Tyco Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, who was also named in
the indictment, was given by prosecutors until 12 p.m. Monday to post
his $5 million bail.
The bail, in the form of 500,000 shares of Tyco stock, was to have been
posted yesterday, but that was delayed by paperwork, prosecutors said.
Tyco shares closed down 33 cents or 2.16 percent at $14.96 on the New
York Stock Exchange on Friday, compared with a 52-week range of $60.06
to $7.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus will hear arguments next
Friday from prosecutors about whether either's funds are tainted. If the
bail is not accepted by the judge next week, Kozlowski and Swartz will
face jail time at Riker's Island, one of the nation's toughest prisons.
Kozlowski headed Tyco from 1992 until this June. He became one of
America's most admired CEO's, using hundreds of acquisitions to build
Tyco into a sprawling international conglomerate that makes ADT burglar
alarms and garbage bags, as well as medical equipment and electronics.
But the company sued him last week after an investigation that mirrored
probes by New York prosecutors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Tyco is in the process of seizing most, if not all of Kozlowski's
assets, including a $17 million Fifth Avenue apartment, a $7 million
Park Avenue apartment he turned over to his ex-wife, a $5 million
Nantucket home and a $30 million compound in Boca Raton, Florida.