The former in the Dell

The Dell fraud action is getting personal. Guambat reckons until these charges get personal, corporations will continue to play the game of admitting no wrongdoing and writing a check and continuing the merry game.

Dell Former Top Accountants Sued by SEC for Fraud That Led To Restatements

Dell Inc.’s former assistant controller and former chief accounting officer were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting fraud, a month after the computer maker settled with the regulator.

[According to the charges] Dell’s “fraudulent and improper accounting” wrongfully “made it appear that Dell was consistently meeting Wall Street earnings targets and reducing its operating expenses as a percentage of revenue,” the SEC said in today’s filings. “Dell committed the accounting violations through the conduct of its most senior former accounting executives.”

Davis, 51, and Imhoff, 48, maintained a variety of so- called cookie jar reserves to meet earnings shortfalls, the SEC said. The manipulations misrepresented Dell’s financial results and caused additional misstatements in Dell’s annual and quarterly results, the regulator said.