2004-8-12
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Investors in a company have some control over how it operates.
Shareholders can vote on some issues. They can also go to court if
they believe their interests are being harmed.
Last week, investors brought legal action against the energy
services company Halliburton. The investors accuse four former or
current top officers of misleading them.
The latest legal action says that Halliburton lost a legal case
in Texas in September, two thousand one. A court ordered the company
to pay one hundred thirty million dollars. The decision was kept
secret. At the time, Halliburton told investors that the case had
gone well. But three months later, the company's stock price dropped
forty-two percent on the day that news of the judgement became
public.
Four former Halliburton employees also told legal investigators
that the company did not keep honest records of its sales and costs
from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand one. They said the
company claimed to collect more money than it received. They said
workers were expected to change records to make the company appear
more profitable. The charges cover two years when Vice President
Dick Cheney was its chief executive officer. He was not named in the
case.
In a statement, Halliburton said the latest legal action is an
attempt to turn public opinion against the company. Halliburton said
a federal court in Dallas, Texas, approved a settlement of twenty
similar cases on June seventh. The company agreed to pay six million
dollars. Halliburton said the court ordered that no more shareholder
cases be brought against the company.
On August third, Halliburton reached a settlement with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. said the company had
secretly changed its method of financial record-keeping in nineteen
ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. The new method made
Halliburton's earnings appear almost fifty percent higher.
Halliburton paid seven million five hundred thousand dollars without
admitting any wrongdoing.
Halliburton faces other problems. The Justice Department is
investigating Halliburton's projects in the Balkans and in Nigeria.
Halliburton is based in Houston, Texas. It is the world's second
largest oil services company. The largest is Schlumberger Limited.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Gwen Outen.