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Show The Salt Lake Tribune MOTLEY FOOL HUMBERTO CRUZ CHET CURRIER SMALL TALK BUSINESS FD E2 E2 E3 ES Competition takesa bite out of tiesa bet PAGE ES 8 SUNDAY FEBRUARY16, 2003 -Whistle-Blower Says He WasSilenced But ClearOneofficials vow companywill come out of SEC investigation unscathed Be Wary About BYSTEV! Fake Pitches for Charity OBERBECK © 2003, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE His first day at ClearOne Communications, Timothy Morrison walked into the office of chief executive Frances Flood and received whathecalls the first hint that something might be amiss at the fter every major accident or natural disaster, Americans company. | Flood was on the phone with two ClearOne distributors asking for a favor, said Morrison, then the company’s newvice president of productsales. tend to collect money and other aidfor those affected.It’s a response crooks count on — and the Better Business Bureauis warning the space shuttle catastropheis no different. Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune Timothy Morrison says he was harassed and eventually fired by ClearOne Communications after refusing Charity auctionsandat least one Website purporting to be for helping shuttle families have been reported, and Texas officials are warning products when they were sold.” For ClearOne, the practice of pushing unwanted products on its distributors, then recording those unpaid-for shipments as sales, may have turned into the equivalent of a corporate addiction. As Flood later put it, Morrison said in testimony to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “We got ourselves on the heroin.” Now, nearly two years after ClearOneallegedly started padding its sales and earnings figures through a process knownas “channelstuffing,” the company is under siege, with Morrisonreluctantly in theroleof whistle-blower. The company’s shares are suspended from trading. Flood and chieffinancial officer Susie Strom stand accused bythe SEC of scheming to bolster the company’ price by making it appear ClearOnew ning with high-tech health. In realit: rording to the SEC, a large part of Could the distributors, between them, take the sales growththe company reported quarterafter $750,000 worth of audio- and video-conferencing equipment to help ClearOne makeits projected quarter beginning in early 2001 was based on such fourth quarter 2001 sales and earnings numbers? The terms were generous, Morrison said in an sham transactions. “This pattern of behavior by ClearOne continued each quarter, with ClearOne forcing inventory on interview with The Salt Lake Tribune. “If they agreed to helo Fran out, they could pay for the See WHISTLE-BLOWER,Page E-5 | about telephone and e-mail spam- mers whoare seeking donations related to the Columbia disaster. “t's unfortunate, but the minute we heard aboutthe loss ofthe Columbia shuttle, we knewto be on the lookout for questionable appeals that will seek to use headlines to solicit donations, supposedly for charitable ” said Art Taylor, president and CEOofthe BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog affiliated with the Better Business Bureau system. “The organizationoffers a few tips for weeding outthe hucksters: {@ Be wary of appeals long on emotion, but short on specifics about how the charity will address victims’ needs. @ Do not give cash. @ Be alert for excessive pressure for immediate donations, and anyrequest to send someone to collect your contribution. | | | | | | | | | | an e-nail solicitation. — The Associated Press Jobless Singles One little factoid you don’t often hear about in the government's monthly unemployment rolls—mar- ital status. It turns outthatin the current economic downturn, about62 percent ofthe roughly 1.85 million Americans who have been unemps etme ieee don outplacement firm ~ -, Gray & Christmas Inc., on a reView ofdata from the Bureai istics. . | | | —_| | | | BY MIKE GORRELL THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE n paper, Utah’s coal industry seems to be holdingits own heading into the 2ist thata surge in the nuniber ofsingle and widowedseniors enter- century. Production has been steady for a decade. While employmentcontinues to decline, d increased n use of rapacious i longwall mining machines has elevated productivity to once unfathomable levels. And although the market value ofcoal remains low, prices have stabilized the past five years after fairly sizable drops in the mid-to late 1980s. “From deregulation to California's energy meltdown to Enron to was to Vene: coal Utah. f a His agency and the Utah Geological Survey last month released a ‘on the state’s coal production and distribution during 2001, the latest year for which complete figures are available. According to the report, 13 Utah mines operated by seven companies excavated 27 million tons of coal. That was just 45,000 tons less than the 1996 record, and worth an estimated $480 million. But theprice of coal averaged just $17.76 ton. Twenty years ago, the going rate for a ton coal was pets3 =e m= = Oe Tere dessica Noel Berry/The Sait Lake Tribune Avhalidozen mines in the Wasatch Plateau coal field 2001, 81 percent of the state's output. The rest (5.1 neatly 22 milion tons of coal in tons) came from the Book Cif field. $29.42. Backthen,justless than 17 million tons of coal were mined by4,296 people. Employmentin 2001 was down to 1,564. _ While the production numbers for 2001 were impressive, some mining people fear troubled times See COAL MINING,Page E-3 marketplace through buyouts of established com panies as well as providing expansion Capital to late-stage growth companies,” he noted. “When you look at returns {in the) private, small to middle market buyout space, they have historically gener ated very high returns for investors.” Bullock’s venture, formally revealed Saturday drew plaudits from Gov. Mike Leavitt. _ “It is an important development both substan tively and symbolically. Some years ago there were BYMIKE GORRELL ‘THE SALTLARE TRIBUNE Fresh off his successful role helping guide the Winter Games, Fraser Bullock i to Fraser Bullock has teamed up with some influential agement team, which has tles to the Bain Gapital friends to form # venture capital fund that will look to group that Counts Bullock and Rommey as alumni ‘support mid-sized companies. chiefoperating officer from 1999 through the end of Its highest profile figure is former Brigham Young ate an San “Wer quarterback “The allure to them was Fraser, Bullouky” the Sia Sce VENTURE FUND. |
