Diebold, the maker of electronic voting equipment that has links to alleged voting irregularities in the 2004 presidential election, agreed Wednesday to pay $25 million to settle accounting fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Former Diebold chief executive Walden O'Dell, who stirred protest when he promised to deliver Ohio to President George W. Bush in 2004, agreed under the settlement to give the company back $470,000 in cash bonuses, $1 million in stock and 85,000 stock options for compensation related to the fraud.
The SEC alleged in its complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, that Diebold and several top executives created false transactions from 2002 to 2007 to boost sales and profits, misstating earnings by $127 million.
The SEC said executives traded near-daily reports comparing Diebold earnings to the expectations of Wall Street analysts and came up with "opportunity lists" of often-fraudulent accounting transactions to bridge the gap between actual and expected earnings.
Voting equipment maker Diebold settles accounting fraud charges for $25 million
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