Adelphia to pay $715M to settle accounting allegations

Pittsburgh Business Times
April 25, 2005

Adelphia Communications Corp. will pay the government $715 million to settle allegations of accounting fraud, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday.

Adelphia will deposit the money in a fund that the government will use to compensate investors hurt by the fraud, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office said. As part of the settlement, members of the Rigas family, the company's founders, have agreed to forfeit more than 95 percent of their assets, which is in excess of $1.5 billion, according to a news release on the SEC's Web site.

""This settlement agreement presents a strong, coordinated approach by the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office to resolving one of the most complicated and egregious financial frauds committed at a public company," said Mark Schonfeld, director of the SEC's Northeast Regional Office. "The settlement provides an expedient and effective way to provide victims of Adelphia's fraud with a substantial recovery while at the same time enabling Adelphia to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy."