It is over.
After firing its former CEO and other senior executives nine months ago amid a Securities and Exchange Commission probe, Nortel Networks Corp. on Tuesday announced filing audited financial statements for the year 2003.
The Canada-based telecommunications equipment maker said the documents reflect the restatement of the years ended 2001 and 2002 and the revision of previously announced results for the 2003 year.
An independent review found that senior executives had manipulated numbers to meet internal earnings before taxes targets, which made the difference between profits and losses, and vice versa, during some quarters in 2002 and 2003.
The audit found Nortel earned $434 million in 2003 rather than $732 million as first stated, USA Today reported. Revenue, however, rose to $10.2 billion, up from $9.8 billion, the newspaper said.
Nortel revealed 12 senior executives who were not directly involved in the scandal have volunteered to pay back $8.6 million in bonuses over three years.
The company also announced that five board members, including Nortel Chairman L.R. Wilson, are retiring.
Like other beleaguered companies that have been the focus of a scandal, Nortel has named a chief ethics and compliance officer. Susan Shepard will serve in that capacity for Nortel. She has been a commissioner for the New York State Ethics Commission since May 2003 and was Commissioner of Investigation for New York City in the early 1990s, according to Nortel.
