ok, i know that schadenfreude is utterly shameful, but….
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.
the dallas-based company said in may that the u.s. securities and exchange commission is investigating how the company accounted for costoverruns on construction jobs.
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 thelawsuit on wednesday.
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.
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.
“”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 astatement. 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.
a spokeswoman for the vice president declined to comment, referring all inquiries to halliburton.