Lawsuit claims Dell hid Intel kickbacks (and another alleges insider trading)

[UpInArms]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2580956,00.html

Dell has been hit with a lawsuit accusing the embattled computer group of improper accounting relating to hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates it allegedly received from Intel, the world's largest computer chip maker.

The lawsuit claims that Dell received as much as $1 billion (£509 billion) a year in "secret and likely illegal" kickbacks from Intel, which were paid to ensure that the computer maker did not use other chip suppliers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday night at the US District Court in Austin, Texas, alleges that the payments were not properly accounted for or disclosed, and that they inflated Dell’s earnings.

The allegations come days after Michael Dell, the company's founder, returned to the role of chief executive, replacing Kevin Rollins, following a string of dismal earnings reports.

Both Mr Dell and Mr Rollins are named in the lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal said, alongside Dell’s auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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and here's the two-fer

Dell suit alleges widespread insider trading

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-dell-lawsuit-latest-issue/story.aspx?guid=%7BB44113E0-6194-4F5C-84E7-70033AAB3321%7D

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- If Michael Dell thought he would get a warm and easy welcome back as Dell Inc.'s chief executive, the events of Friday showed that restoring investor confidence and competing against a revitalized Hewlett-Packard Co. are just the beginning of a litany of dramas that the company founder faces.

Allegations of widespread insider trading by several Dell (DELL) executives, including Dell and former CEO Kevin Rollins, were at the core of an amended complaint to a lawsuit filed against Dell on Jan. 31 in the U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas. The complaint added to a lawsuit originally filed against Dell on Sept. 13, 2006.

The class-action lawsuit alleges that several Dell executives "made a series of false and misleading statements" about the viability of Dell's business model and the company's ability to grow its profits and revenue from February 2003 to September 2006.

It also alleges Dell was dependent on billion-dollar "kickbacks" from Intel Corp. that were secret and possibly illegal. The complaint further contends the misconduct involved "the largest insider bail-out in the history of any U.S. public company."

The sixteen defendants listed in the complaint include Dell, Rollins, former Chief Financial Officer Jim Schneider, and board member and current CFO Donald Carty, who replaced Schneider a couple months ago. Also included in the suit were Dell as a company, Dell's accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Intel Corp. (INTC).

The class action suit was filed by the San Diego-based law firm of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Rolling LLP. The firm is run by Bill Lerach, who augmented his fame during the Enron scandal when he was pictured carrying a box of shredded documents.

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