Four Ex-Qwest Executives Indicted For Fraud

Feb 25, 2003 | FT.COM The Department of Justice on Tuesday indicted four former executives of Qwest Communications on criminal charges, accusing the men of inflating the telecommunications carrier’s earnings by millions of dollars.

Arrest warrants were issued for Grant Graham, former chief financial officer of Qwest’s Global Business Unit, Thomas Hall, ex-vice-president of the government and educational solutions (GES) group, John Walker, who had been vice-president of sales at the GES unit, and Bryan Treadway, who resigned as Qwest’s controller last May.

The four were among eight current and former executives at Qwest Communications also targeted by a related civil suit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC complaint, filed in the district court of Denver, where Qwest is based, focused on two equipment deals in the company’s Global Business Unit. The SEC is seeking civil penalties including “disgorgement of ill-gotten gains", according to regulatory statements.

The legal actions followed a 12-month investigation by the SEC and Department of Justice, and came days after Qwest restated $2.2bn of revenues from its 2001 and 2000 accounts.

Qwest, which also is being investigated by the Department of Justice, restated $2.2bn of revenues for 2000 and 2001 last month as part of an internal investigation into its results.