General Electric Company (GE) is one of the largest companies in the U.S. Currently; it is 18th largest company in the country. This fact underlines the importance of this company for the American company.
On Thursday, GE shares fell to the lowest level in more than a decade. The reason was that Harry Markopolos released a 175-page report about the company. Markopolos claims that GE falsified financial results to hide the problems. As a result of this report, GE shares decreased by 11% on Thursday. It is the worst result since April 2008.
Markopolos said that his team was working on these issues for seven months. This report proved controversial as the author listed problems such as accounting irregularities, etc. Markopolos compared GE to Enron and added that the company is an even bigger fraud than Enron. He said that his team uncovered many essential details about the GE. The most important is the $38 billion in Freud.
Enron was an energy giant who went bankrupt in 2001. The similarity between those two companies is that Enron’s problems also started with accounting irregularities. However, it is too early to say that this report is based on factual information without the due process.
The response of GE
The company denied any wrongdoing. General Electric’s CEO Lawrence Culp said that the purpose of this report was to manipulate the stock market. Culp state Markopolos tried to earn money by spreading false information about the company. Also, the CEO of GE mentioned that before publishing this report, Markopolos did not contact the company to learn more about the situation.
Leslie Seidman, who is a GE board director, also made a comment about this report. According to Seidman, this report contains multiple mistakes which underscore the credibility of this report. She also said that Markopolos made it clear that he would personally benefit from the stock market after publishing this report.
This 175-page report had a negative impact on General Electric Company. However, the authenticity of this report remains unknown.
COMMENTS