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Alleged Accounting Fraud at Halliburton Revealed: Charges Filed Energy giant Halliburton allegedly employed fraudulent accounting practices to overstate revenues and Vice President Cheney, while serving as the company’s CEO, allegedly knew all about it. This according to a new lawsuit launched by Judicial Watch on July 9. "Judicial Watch cannot look the other way in a given scandal simply because we’re talking about the Vice President of the United States. When we say no one is above the law, we mean no one," said JW President Tom Fitton. According to JW’s lawsuit, Halliburton allegedly defrauded shareholders by overstating revenues to the tune of $445 million from 1999 through the end of 2001, thereby maintaining a stock price well above its true value. Specifically, the company was allegedly counting projected cost over-run payments as revenues, even as they were negotiating with customers to pay the over-runs. Had the company taken the most conservative accounting approach, USA Today reports that "more than half of its fourth-quarter operating profit would have been wiped out." Vice President Cheney, known for his hands-on management style, served as CEO of the company from 1995 2000. According to the company¹s current CEO, David Lesar, the Vice President knew about the practice of overvaluing revenues. "The Vice President was aware of who owed us money, and he helped us collect it," Mr. Lesar told Newsweek. Halliburton, for its part, is no stranger to controversial business practices. The company was forced to plead guilty to a crime in 1995 to trading with Libya, a terrorist state on the U.S. watch list.
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