US prosecutors are investigating possible fraud by executives at about 130 public companies and are likely to file new criminal charges in dozens of those cases, US Justice Department officials said.
"We had thought that maybe this corporate fraud crisis had reached a peak, but we continue to have new investigations and new allegations on companies on a regular basis," said Keith Slotter, chief of the FBI's financial-crimes section. "At this point, it has not shown any sign of ebbing."
Prosecutors have charged executives with fraud and related crimes in some of the 130 cases, including those involving Enron Corp, WorldCom Inc, Kmart Corp and HealthSouth Corp Slotter declined to name which executives might be charged. Prosecutors are investigating allegations of fraud against officials at Lucent Technologies Inc, Charter Communications Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and AOL Time-Warner Inc, the companies said.
The Justice Department crackdown also charged executives at Adelphia Communications Corp, Qwest Communications International Inc, and Dynegy Inc
Bryan Sierra, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said prosecutors are working on about 130 fraud cases, including those in which some charges have been filed. The FBI is involved in about 100 of those cases, Slotter said.
The US push began after the collapse in 2001 of Enron, which lost US$68 billion in market value as a result of misstating its finances by hiding debt in off-the-books partnerships.
The effort intensified after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer probed stock research at Wall Street firms, new corporate-governance rules were enacted, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission opened a record number of cases of all types.
The stock market slump that began in 2000 exposed circumstances that pushed some executives to commit crimes, prosecutors said. Executives inflated earnings to conceal business weaknesses and pump up the value of their stock options, said US Attorney James Comey in Manhattan.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique