DALLAS - Halliburton Co. asked a federal judge Tuesday to throw out a lawsuit charging that the company and Vice President Dick Cheney, its former chief executive, misled investors by changing the way it counted revenue from construction projects.
A lawyer for Judicial Watch, a public interest group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of three small investors, said the company tried to polish its financial reports beginning in 1998 by booking revenue on cost overruns before it was certain of getting paid.
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The judge expressed skepticism about some of Judicial Watch's claims, saying that the group was just assuming that Cheney knew details about the accounting change. But he left open the possibility that the group could revise its lawsuit after gathering more evidence of fraud.
"Are you going to come back with specifics, or is it going to be an exercise in futility?" Lindsay asked. Klayman said he could produce evidence that has surfaced since he filed the lawsuit, such as Halliburton CEO David Lesar's comment that Cheney knew about the accounting change. He said the SEC investigation of Halliburton could also yield new evidence.
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