- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
public interest law firm said on Tuesday it would file a shareholder lawsuit
alleging Vice President Dick Cheney and the company he ran for five years,
Halliburton Co., engaged in accounting fraud.
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- The Dallas-based company said in May that the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission is investigating how the company accounted for
cost overruns on construction jobs.
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- The law firm Judicial Watch, which has also sued for
access to records of Cheney's energy task force that drew up the Bush administration's
energy policy last year, said it would file the lawsuit on Wednesday.
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- Judicial Watch said President Bush's rush to crackdown
on corporate fraud seemed intended to deflect attention away from his and
Cheney's own business practices.
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- Bush's own conduct as a businessman has been questioned
since an internal Securities and Exchange Commission memo detailed his
34-week delay in reporting stock sales worth more than $1 million while
serving as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy Corp . more than a decade
ago.
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- "To look the other way for the vice president would
be to set a precedent that the Washington elite are above the law,"
Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel at Judicial Watch, said in
a statement.
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- The lawsuit will allege that the actions by Halliburton,
Cheney and the company's other directors "resulted in the overvaluation
of the company's shares, thereby deceiving investors and others,"
Judicial Watch said in the statement.
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- A spokeswoman for the vice president declined to comment,
referring all inquiries to Halliburton.
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- "We don't believe the case has any merit,"
Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said. The company has said its accounting
practices under investigation conform with generally accepted accounting
principles for the construction industry.
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- The accounting policies under investigation were adopted
by the oilfield services and construction company in 1998.
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- Under the policy, Halliburton began to recognize some
of its unresolved claims against engineering and construction clients as
revenue, even though the amounts of money at stake were still in dispute.
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- Further details of the suit were not immediately available
and Klayman was not immediately available for comment.
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- A press conference is slated for 9 a.m. on Wednesday
in Miami to announce details of the lawsuit.
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- An administration official said on July 1 that Cheney
had not been contacted by the SEC as part of its probe. SEC Chairman Harvey
Pitt said on June 30 that the investigation would continue regardless of
where it leads.
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- "We don't give anyone a pass. If anybody violates
the law, we go after them," he said on ABC television's "This
Week."
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- Halliburton shares closed down 21 cents, or about 1.5
percent, to $14.12 on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 2.66 million
shares trading hands. Its 52-week high was $36.79 and has hit a 52-week
low of $8.60.
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