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Dunn: We Made Mistakes
By Mark Evans | November 14, 2007
Ex-Nortel CEO Frank Dunn and ex-Doug Beatty claims the accounting problems that hobbled Nortel and led to extensive restatements were caused by mistakes rather than fraud.
In a response to a civil fraud lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Dunn claims credit for saving Nortel after the telecom boom collapsed in 2000.
“In this challenging business environment, Frank Dunn rescued the company by implementing a painful and massive company-wide restructuring plan,” he said in his filing.
Beatty,, meanwhile, described the SEC’s allegations as “ludicrous”. “Every CFO of a public company understands that any restatement of financial results is highly likely to draw the scrutiny of the SEC,” he said in his filing.
These are interesting - but not surprising - statements given they’re being made more than three years after Dunn and Beatty were fired by Nortel for “cause” amid allegations they and other Nortel executives, including ex-controller Michael Gollogly, cooked the books to trigger a lucrative bonus structure.
If this civil cases, goes to trial, it will be fascinating to hear Dunn and Beatty’sside of the story about what actually happened.
Check out the Globe & Mail for more details.
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