Vivendi in trouble with the SEC

[Saint_Proverbius]

Things aren't looking up for <A href="http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/">Vivendi</a> these days, and it looks like it's not going to get better for them any time soon. According to this <A href="http://www.itworld.com/Man/2681/021104vivendi/">article</a>, the <a href="http://www.sec.gov/">SEC</a> is looking in to their books now as well. Here's a taste:

<blockquote>The Paris company, which already has French authorities scrutinizing its bookkeeping and shareholders in revolt to deal with, will cooperate fully with the "preliminary criminal investigation" launched by the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, it said in a statement.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is conducting an informal inquiry into Vivendi Universal, will coordinate its activities with the U.S. Attorney's investigation, Vivendi Universal said. The company earlier this year was accused of employing tricky accounting methods to increase profits in 2001, though it is not clear if this is the focus of the SEC and criminal probes.</blockquote>

Keep in mind that <a href="http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/">Vivendi</a> publishes for <a href="http://interplay.com">Interplay</a>, <a href="http://www.blizzard.com/">Blizzard</a>, and <A href="http://www.sierra.com/">Sierra</a>.

Thanks <b>chrisbeddoes</b>!

 

[Mike]

Hah

If vivendi is punished it will be through their stockholders, not through the US SEC. Inflating earnings, keeping double books and making fraudulent earnings reports is the american way. If the enron boys can get off with billions of dollars squirrelled away in swiss bank accounts...

Doesn't surprise me in the least. I bet EA and other major companies cook the books. Microsoft does it for sure, in addition to tax evasion.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Re: Hah

If vivendi is punished it will be through their stockholders, not through the US SEC. Inflating earnings, keeping double books and making fraudulent earnings reports is the american way. If the enron boys can get off with billions of dollars squirrelled away in swiss bank accounts...

Doesn't surprise me in the least. I bet EA and other major companies cook the books. Microsoft does it for sure, in addition to tax evasion.

Well, one thing I thought was funny about the Enron thing is that the Senate justice committee decided last summer to wait until January 2003 to actually do anything about that company. Enron's been giving out money to politicians for years, it's really not much of a wonder that it's taking so long. You can throw a rock in Capitol Hill without hitting something that Enron's money's touched.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Re: Hah

If vivendi is punished it will be through their stockholders, not through the US SEC. Inflating earnings, keeping double books and making fraudulent earnings reports is the american way. If the enron boys can get off with billions of dollars squirrelled away in swiss bank accounts...

Doesn't surprise me in the least. I bet EA and other major companies cook the books. Microsoft does it for sure, in addition to tax evasion.

Well, one thing I thought was funny about the Enron thing is that the Senate justice committee decided last summer to wait until January 2003 to actually do anything about that company. Enron's been giving out money to politicians for years, it's really not much of a wonder that it's taking so long. You can throw a rock in Capitol Hill without hitting something that Enron's money's touched.

Multinationals would not exist in a free economy.
They only exist because the governments are giving these companies huge amounts of free money, intelligence, and special made custom laws to benefit them.
And after, these multinationals are used like warships in a economic war to grab resources and profit from other nations.
The old man that run things don't care about the destruction that this causes to the environment because they don’t have too many years to live.

But we should care.

 

[Mike]

my reply

The really sad thing is that all that Enron money that 'disappeared' is traceable. Not that it would be easy, but there's a few swiss and panamanian bank accounts around that could be 'extradited'. Goodbye retirement savings, middle class america.

I agree with the saint.... it is a wonder that anything has been done at all, given all the money that enron has thrown around. And not just here either. They've also been bribing and cajoling politicians in canada, latin america and venezuela, if I recall.

It's a classic libertarian line (and I'm a liberal libertarian sympathizer) that big government is behind these huge multinationals. I'm with you on the cushy contracts. Indeed these companies have laws rewritten for their benefit, and (like haliburton for instance) they get plum contracts and government help in running pump and dump schemes.

But if you look at the government participants, they're usually transplanted company execs. Cheney, Rice, the head of the federal regulatory body on the environment. There's not really a clear line between these big companies and the government. There's more of a revolving door at the top.

And the accountants at arthur anderson who were taking bribes to submit fraudulent reviews weren't government employees.

But who knows... maybe they'll hit vivendi to make an example of someone. After all, vivendi is probably owned by foreigners, whereas enron was run by bush's buddies.

Cheers guys.

 

[Rosh]

Screw Enron, check Wal-Mart out:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12962

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Re: my reply

But who knows... maybe they'll hit vivendi to make an example of someone. After all, vivendi is probably owned by foreigners, whereas enron was run by bush's buddies.

Bush doesn't control the Senate Judiciary Committee that delayed the the hearings until January. That would be Patrick J. Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, whom I doubt is one of Bush's buddies since they've been delaying the appointment of any Federal Judges that Bush has nominated since Bush took office.

Like I said.. It's impossible to throw a rock on Capitol Hill without hitting someone that Enron's given money.

However, I don't think now's a good time to pull that bookcooking and expect to get away with it, since companies are now under a lot of scrutiny from various sources.

 

[Rayt]

Would it be likely that Vivendi would sell it's publishing licenses (like Interplay or Blizzard) to other publishers to bank some money? This wouldn't be of any concequences to us, the people, directly I guess.

Also, Vivendi sucks ass for bringing IWD2 to Europe 3 months later than the US. So it could only become better.