North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold said it learned recently about the SEC inquiry and is cooperating. The company disclosed the inquiry in its quarterly report filed with the agency.
The investigation of Diebold by the SEC, which we had heard previously about through background sources over the past several months, comes on the heels of a class action Securities Fraud litigation suit, originally reported exclusively by The BRAD BLOG just before it was filed last December.
That suit came on the heels of a growing number of reports on the reliability and vulnerability of Diebold’s electronic voting machines and concerns about their larger ATM division.
Last September, just days after we reported on an anonymous Diebold insider, nicknamed “DIEB-THROAT”, who pointed us to a Dept. of Homeland Security “Cyber Security Alert” about vulnerabilities in Diebold’s election software, the company’s stock-prices plummeted more than 15%.
While the stock price has remained lower than the nearly all-time highs it had been at just prior to the sudden drop, the price per share has been slowing inching back up over the last several months since the resignation of former CEO Walden O’Dell who was apparently pushed out just prior to the filing of the Securities Fraud suit which complained of insider trading, stock price manipulation and other malfeasance by eight current and former top Diebold executives.
O’Dell had earned criticism after sending a fundraising letter to Republicans, prior to the 2004 President Election promising to deliver the state of Ohio to George W. Bush, for whom O’Dell was a top supporter.
O’Dell was quickly replaced by the President of the Diebold Elections division, Thomas Swidarski, who is also named in the class action litigation.
Problems continue to plague the North Canton, Ohio-based company’s Electronic Voting Machine division. Last Friday, The BRAD BLOG filed a detailed report on the newest security vulnerability to be discovered in Diebold touch-screen voting machines. This particular vulnerability, just the latest in a string of more than a dozen serious flaws to be discovered since last December, has been described as a “major national security risk” and last week forced the state of Pennsylvania to “sequester” all of their new Diebold touch-screen systems until an attempted “fix” can be applied to mitigate the problem…
Pennsylvania’s primary election is scheduled for next Tuesday and the state had been planning on using the new Diebold touch-screen systems for the first time this year in a number of counties.
This most recent problem is said to affect all Diebold AccuVote touch-screen systems in every state. It is said, by a number of officials who have been made aware of the problem, to be such a security concern that only partial details are being released publicly for the time being.
The security flaw — which, incredebily was reportedly built-in to the system by Diebold as a “feature” in order to make system upgrades easier — was first discovered when computer security professionals were allowed, by Emery County, Utah County Clerk Bruce Funk, to examine the county’s new Diebold AccuVote TSx machines last March.
In the wake of the examination, state officials have since attempted to push Funk, a 23-year elected official, out of his job for daring to allow an independent investigation and analysis of the new voting systems. BlackBoxVoting.org (BBV), the election watchdog organization who arranged the security analysis in Emery County with two different computer security teams, is financially backing Funk’s legal battle against the state of Utah for reinstatement in his former position. BBV has promised to release more details on the newly discovered problem tomorrow on their website.
UPDATE: A complete listing of the now ten listed Securities suits being brought against Diebold, from their recent Quarterly Report as filed with the SEC.
And, P.S., more bad legal news for Diebold to come out of Arizona tomorrow, The BRAD BLOG has learned. Details maà±ana…
Thanks to our illustrious S.O.S. Bruce McPherson and Diebold, the California Express is barreling down the tracks towards disaster 06/06/06.
http://tinyurl.com/a6erq
Help Impeach Today
Why does it take people so fucking long to get on board? I am so damn tired. Fuck
This "informal inquiry" is either a joke or Bush&co. are about to get it.
This is GREAT news, but just a small start.
The SEC, unfortunately, is only charged with ensuring the adequacy and accuracy of DISCLOSURES (statements made in financial statements and offering materials) sent to the stock buying public (and certain SOSs).
This being said . . .
If an SEC examiner has reason to believe that a crime (like fraud) is being committed, the examiner must notify the FBI for further investigation.
So, this is GREAT NEWS.
Regards,
Pran
It feels like the Chinese Water Torture! The head should have been lopped off this Hydra at the root immediately.
It has been Chinese water torture since the repugs impeached Clinton….We may see some accountability by the end of the decade at this rate
"The wheels of justice grind slowly…" Boy, do they ever.
Why is it characterized as an "informal" inquiry"?
On July 3 2005 BBV posted an extensive article about Diebold and potential SEC problems. Among other things, Bev Harris supplied documents to the SEC indicating serious questions in relation to Diebold’s compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
You might want to refer to the BBV article and mention some of these points in your story.
Don’t despair,…
we gotta fight tooth and nail,…
like never before,.. up to November 2006.
The right-wingers are backed into a corner.
This election coming is going to be a
political bloodbath.
A positive attitude is imperative.
I think this could be the jugular vein. but where are Dr. green party, Dr. aclu, Dr.naacp, Dr.urban league,Dr.sclc Dr.corr will everybody let them know.
Yes, the Californian SOS, Bruce McPhearson should be held accountable for the train wreak he is causing. Not only did he illegally certify the Diebold voting machines, but in the light of the recent security issues, he continues to "stay the course" and will not pull these vote rigging systems from the polls.
Bruce, we all know you want to Floridize California with your rigged elections. I hope you can sleep at night knowing that rigging elections to further one party rule in NOT the american way our founding fathers wanted.
Talking about "Floridize California" JEB’s pretty quite , and his big bro’s doing such a "heck of a Job"…LOL
This might or might not have to do with election fraud. It might not have to do with voting machines at all.
How they recognize revenue is an accounting issue. If a company wants to overstate earnings (to keep the stock from falling, typically) it might include sales contracted for but not consummated (or paid for). In an election context this could mean, "States have until _____ to conform to HAVA, and _____ (state) has to order our machines by then, so we’ll count it in that quarter."
But the accounting questions could have do to with ATM machines, also. Bottom line…it’s further evidence of how dishonest Diebold is, even though they’re hardly the only company that uses "funny" accounting methods. Coca-Cola is the worst on the planet when it comes to that, and the dot-com bubble in the late ’90s was facilitated by the same thing. Then, there’s Enron…oh, my.
RLM #15,
The link in my post here does in fact mention general financial reporting inaccuracies, as highlighted by BBV in July 2005.
The fact that BBV found sensitive Diebold financial documents in an unsecured dumpster accessibly by the public is possibly an SEC violation. The fact that Diebold underreported its lobbying expenses (which BBV discovered which it looked at the financial documents Kathleen Wynne bravely retrieved from the dumpster) is possibly an SEC violation.
That’s why BBV took legal advice and passed on its evidence to the SEC.
The SEC report explicitly mentions the case which Diebold lost, with a $2.6 million fine due to be paid to CA, as something that was not adequately communicated to Diebold stockholders. It is easy to forget that this is the Qui Tam case taken by Bev Harris and Jim March, in which they chose to receive far smaller financial rewards by having the case unsealed so that the information could be made public for the public good. (They otherwise could have taken a *sealed* Qui Tam, which would have brought them potentially far greater sums of money personally, but which would not have been in the public interest because the evidence of Diebold’s fraudulent practices would have been kept secret from the public for months or years.)
Thanks, Catherine. It appears the dots do connect.
recently in New Orleans, my friend Alma Sanford found a CD in the hotel gift shop that was produced by a group called "The Freedom Toast." It has lots of spoofs about the GOP. One song is of particular significance to us. It is sung to the tune of "A Bicycle Built for Two" and is entitled, "Diebold." It is as follows:
– – – –
Diebold, Diebold, give me your answer do.
How come you know though it’s just ten to two?
They say that you know the winner four hours before dinner.
I did not know a computer pro can now program clairvoyance too.
Touch screen, touch screen, you leave no paper trail.
It’s a good thing that you can never fail.
You gave Bush four thousand seven in a town of just eleven.
But you can’t speak, so there’s less to leak,
And we can’t find who programmed you.
Diebold, Diebold, you confirm all my fears.
How could people all vote like Britney Spears?
I’d love to see our great nation demand investigation,
But no one checks so your execs can
Breathe easy for four more years.
Diebold, Diebold, you won’t do as I bid.
I chose Kerry. Why don’t you say I did?
I came to vote. That’s my duty.
Your screen said, "Kiss my bootie!"
That is unkind, d’ya think they’ll mind
The debris that I’ve left of you?
This is how Hillary R. Clinton is going to win the Presidency…… : :crazy:
What the hell took them so long?!
Could you increase your type size, it is hard to read. Also your background color is hard to read. Keep up your good topics.
Catherine a #16
After reading that post I’m just wondering who’s going to play Beverly Harris in the movie!
There are dozens of movies that could be made about the whole voting machine saga if we were able to get to the truth of it all. Heros and villains would abound, and Hollywood script writers would have a field day. There’d be no shortage of drama and skulduggery, that’s for sure.
Maybe it could be a "maxi"-series like The Forsythe Saga years ago.
Larry Bergan #22
The lady who played the wicked witch in Wizard of Oz immediately comes to mind, but I believe she passed away several years ago.
This comes as no surprise to me. rense.com website had several articles of fraud with Diebold’s voting machines ever since the 2000 elections. There is nothing else that could explain how that poor excuse for a president could have been elected or re-elected. Both the 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged by Diebold’s voting machines and I hope the truth at long last comes out. It’s funny how the media has ignored this subject and now it’s apparent that the US and the world is worse off for these voting frauds with the Iraq fiasco. I agree with Harry Belefonte, Bush is the biggest terrorist in the world.
HOW CAN WE CLAIM TO TAKE DEMOCRACY TO IRAQ, WHEN WE CAN’T EVEN HAVE FAIR ELECTIONS HERE? Dixie Chicks, Right ON!!! Bush embarrasses more than just you. It’s impeachment time since he stole his position!!!
We have been waiting for this for a long time. Why is the media so quiet about this? There will be no change without a lot of noise from a lot of people.I have been waiting for six years, where is the outrage?
Why aren’t the big name medias, MSNBC, CNN, etc publicizing this? It will take a lot of people making a lot of noise to affect any change. The democrats knew that these machines were rigged, where’s the outrage?
We have about 90 days before the elections, we still have these machines to terrorize our democracy. The law suits coming, but the machines are still there. Time is running out, how can we scrap these technological terrors before it’s too late? Here’s a link to my cartoon on the subject, don’t expect funny, cause this problem is not funny at all.
http://www.whatnowtoons.com/#034