By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
Dell Inc. says it will beef up accounting and corporate governance rules as part of a settlement tied to an investigation into past financial practices. The PC maker will also pay $1.75 million in legal fees.
After a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Dell's accounting was made public in 2006, several shareholder groups filed lawsuits saying Dell misrepresented its financial health while officers and board members sold stock at inflated prices.
Dell restated results for 2003 through 2007 after an internal audit found it overstated sales by $359 million and profit by $92 million during those years. The SEC probe is ongoing. Under the settlement filed Monday with the SEC, Dell will increase the board's independence and more tightly control its finances.
Stanford being moved from site of Texas jail fight
Texas financier R. Allen Stanford will be moved from the lockup where he got into a jail fight that left him with a concussion.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered him moved from the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, north of Houston, to the Federal Detention Center in downtown Houston.
Stanford attorney Kent Schaffer told The Associated Press that his client got "a concussion, two black eyes, a broken nose" as a result of the Thursday fight. Schaffer says Stanford was returned to the lockup Sunday afternoon.
But the Houston judge's Friday order, made public today, seems unconnected to Stanford's Thursday fight with another inmate.
The judge's order responds to a defense request that the Corley facility interfered with their ability to meet with their client and review the large number of records in the case. Stanford's accused of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
Ex-Enron broadband exec gets 16 months in prison
The ex-top executive of Enron's failed Internet business apologized for his actions today before receiving a 16-month prison sentence. Joseph Hirko was sentenced in Houston for lying about the capabilities of the once mighty energy giant's broadband network in order to help pump up the company's stock price.
The former broadband unit CEO also agreed under his plea deal to pay $8.7 million in restitution.
Hirko had previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Hirko's attorney, Per Ramfjord, had asked for a sentence of a year and a day, but prosecutor Jonathan Lopez disagreed. He said investors lost $80 million because of Hirko's actions.
Ex-roommate says Smadi was suicidal
A former roommate of a failed bomb plot suspect says his friend was lonely and suicidal in recent months in Texas.
Joshua Childress told WFAA-TV that he was worried about 19-year-old Jordanian national Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, who lived in Italy, Texas.
Childress, who lived with Smadi last year, says the pair would talk for hours and Smadi "wasn't happy" being away from his family.
Smadi was arrested Thursday after federal officials say he put what he thought was a bomb-filled truck in a garage beneath a Dallas skyscraper.
Smadi is held on allegations he tried to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. A judge on Friday appointed an Arabic translator and a lawyer for Smadi. His next court appearance is Oct. 5. Italy is about 45 miles south of Dallas.