My Marley Growls at the SEC

My Marley, Overstock.com's wacky CEO Patrick Byrne, has made a mess again. Oh my! Seems that he's peed all over the legs of the SEC, again.

White collar crime-fighter Sam Antar points out in his blog that Byrne has chosen to tough it out with the SEC, which just relaunched an investigation of the company.

Sam reports:

Earlier today, Overstock.com filed a registration statement in connection with its 2005 Equity Incentive Plan. CEO Patrick M. Byrne, CFO Steven J. Chesnut, audit committee members Allison H. Abraham, Clay Corbus, and Joseph J. Tabacco Jr. all signed off on Overstock.com's SEC filing. In addition, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Overstock.com's former auditors, consented to the company using flawed financial reports in its SEC filing.

The problem is that none of Byrne's financial statements have been in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Byrne created a "cookie jar reserve" in order to manipulate the numbers, thereby inflating the share price.

There he goes again, making a mess. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last. Ruff! Ruff! Down boy.

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