Report - Cheney still own 433,000 options on Halliburton stock......

[cthrumatrix]

Cheney may still have Halliburton ties

Congressional report finds Vice President still has financial interest in his old company.
September 25, 2003: 4:28 PM EDT



WASHINGTON (CNN) - A congressional report concludes that, under federal ethics standards, Vice President Dick Cheney still has a financial interest in Halliburton, the energy services company he used to run.

The report, by the Congressional Research Service, came at the request of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat and former player in the corporate world who has pushed Cheney on the issue.


The report says that the deferred compensation that Cheney receives from Halliburton as well as the more than 433,000 stock options he possesses "is considered among the 'ties' retained in or 'linkages to former employers' that may 'represent a continuing financial interest' in those employers which makes them potential conflicts of interest."

snip

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/news/companies/cheney/index.htm

Is this the report that's suppose to bury Cheney. Didn't he just deny ANY financial ties to Halliburton..? Here was his offices reply....it seems to be a lie.



Dow Jones Business News
Cheney's Office Defends Deferred Halliburton Compensation
Thursday September 25, 9:09 pm ET
By John M. Biers


HOUSTON -- A spokeswoman defended U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday after a Democratic senator criticized Mr. Cheney's deferred compensation from Halliburton in light of the company's multi-billion dollar contracts in Iraq.
Although Mr. Cheney will continue to receive annual payments of about $150,000 per year from the Houston oil service and defense conglomerate through 2005, Mr. Cheney spokeswoman Cathie Martin said Mr. Cheney took steps before taking office that ensure the payments aren't tied to the company's financial standing. Cheney was formerly the chief executive of Halliburton.

"The Vice President has no financial interest in Halliburton," Ms. Martin told Dow Jones Newswires. "He has no stake in the company -- he will in no way benefit from the rise or fall of Halliburton's stock price or the success or failure of the company."

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/2109001340_2.html

[Newsjock]

1. Spiro T. Cheney

Spread it far, spread it wide.

[Homer12]

2. Do you hear that?

...it's the media slowly eating the flesh off Dicky why he is still politicaly alive.

Only a matter of time..........

[eileen_d]

3. Here's Lautenberg's statement on his web site

http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~lautenberg/press/2003/01/2003925A22.html

"While the lights were out, Halliburton billed the American people $300 million over the hurricane weekend," said Lautenberg. "Congress has the responsibility to look into this immediately before more taxpayer money is placed in Halliburton's bank accounts."

Ouch!

[Cappurr]

5. Yeah but Lautenberg was a little soft in that report

"I'm sure Cheney is an honorable man" and mentioning his salary is going to charity (at a hughe tax write off of course). But the big deal is the Stock Options. When Halliburton Stock goes up (as it has since Iraq) Cheney's options become immensely more valuable. As Bush I said "This cannot stand". Cheney has lied. He has a direct financial interest in the growth and profitability of Halliburton and he should be made to divest himself immedately of all those options and frankly, I think Halliburton should be replace in Iraq. This is all tooooo dirty.

[eileen_d]

8. Right - the stock options were news to me

Not that I'm surprised. Cheney is the devil.

[salin]

11. but is it going to Charity

he "pledged it" -but til I see proof of it - I doubt it - he lies about everything - why would this be different. Remember during the election - Halliburton didn't do business with Iraq...

[RobertSeattle]

4. If you want to see the entire disclosure form...

I believe all the high ranking officals have to submit the disclosure form for the the prior year by sometime in the spring of the following year.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/cheney.disclosure.2001.pdf (Note: 5Mb)

[Minstrel Boy]

6. Pardon me, but what world is this?

And can anyone point me in the direction of the planet Earth?

[UTUSN]

7. Surprise.

This from the team that first (during this period) broke the law by running two candidates from the same state, next performed a coup, next started an illegal war----------and we're just hitting the high spots here.

[7th_Sephiroth]

9. Isint this a crime?

Lets go to D.C. with this evidence and impeach him.

[Yupster]

21. There's nothing against the law about

running a president and vice-president from the same state.

[UTUSN]

23. "Bending" Is How "Against the Law" Starts

And it was a portent of the Shrub-CHEENEE m.o.

******QUOTE*****

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States

.... The Vice President must have the same constitutional qualifications as the President and cannot come from the same state. (In fact, this second requirement is not a constitutional requirement. What the Constitution provides is that if the candidates for President and Vice President come from the same state, the electors from that state could not vote for both. This might result in the Vice Presidential candidate receiving insufficiently many electoral votes for election even if the Presidential candidate is elected.) In practice the second requirement is easily circumvented by having the Vice President change the state of residency as was done by Dick Cheney who changed his legal residency from Texas to Wyoming in order to serve as Vice President for George W. Bush. ....

*****UNQUOTE****

[frank frankly]

10. Dick, enjoy the final days of being VP.

gone by 2004.

Say Goodbye, Dick!

[Hippo_Tron]

12. Wait...

Isn't owning options basically the same thing as owning stock...

[Yupster]

22. Explanation of stock options from a stockbroker

First, these are employee stock options. They have nothing to do with buying puts or calls that anyone can do by calling their brokers. This is an entirely different animal.

I exercise these employee stock options for people about once every couple of months or so.

Basically, it's an incentive a company gives employees, usually middle-management and up. I did exercise some options for a secretary once though.

It's an invitation to buy the company's stock at a set price for a specific period of time.

For instance. Let's say XYZ Corp. is currently selling for $ 50 per share.

XYZ Corp can give Mrs. Smith a stock option to buy 1000 shares of XYZ Corp stock anytime in the next three years at a price of $ 70 per share.

If XYZ stock never reaches $ 70 per share the options expire worthless which is what happens to most options.

However, if XYZ Corp gets to $ 80 a share, Mrs. Smith can buy 1,000 shares for $ 70 a share ( $70,000) and then immediately sell them for $ 80 a share ($ 80,000) and pocket $ 10,000 (minus a trifling commission).

It's a very tough decision when to exercise the options because if the price hits $ 72, you can make $ 2,000, but if it goes back below $ 70 it will expire worthless, but if you sell at $ 72 and take your 2k, it might go to $ 100 and you feel bad.

The purpose of the options is to get the managers working hard to get the profits up so the stock price goes up which makes the owners of the company (stockholders) very happy.

Big Question I don't know the answer to. Are employee stock options transferable? Meaning, could Cheney sell them if he wanted to? I have never sold any or heard of anyone selling any so I don't know. He may just have to wat until they all expire.

[KoKo]

13. Stock Options very definitely give one an "Interest" in the company when

one is VP of the United States and has been complicit and possibly influential in a war where the options could be influenced by favorable contracts Halliburton has received in Iraq!

This is really bad for Cheney.....but will he be able to "brush it off?" I don't know...I would have thought the "big guys " would be able to keep Grasso as Head of NADAQ......and it was the little guys who brought him down....we will have to see. It's possible this could get him......given the current climate.....but we maybe haven't gotten "THAT" enraged at the Corporate Criminals raping America.......yet. The door just opened a crack with Grasso....but there's still ENRON!

[janekat]

15. Sure as hell is - ( used to be an investment manager) n/t

[Gman]

14. The options are worthless

and the stock price would have to go up substantially just to make any money at all.

I'm afraid the press will look at this and think it's no big deal.

[janekat]

17. sez who????

[Gman]

19. HAL closed at $24.72 today

The cheapest option he has is $28.125. Therefore, the options are worthless.

<snip>
Lautenberg said Halliburton stock options held by Cheney were 100,000 shares at $54.50 per share, 33,333 shares at $28.125 and 300,000 shares at $39.50 per share.
</snip>

--on edit--

One option gives you the opportunity to buy one share of stock at the price of the option. In this case the cheapest option Cheney has is $28.125. However, the HAL closed today at $24.72. If Cheney were to exercise the option today, he would automatically lose ($24.72 - $28.125) $3.405 per share. Not a very thing to do.

Generally, options are given as a form of compensation. The option price often is set at a particular point in time with the assumption that the price of the stock will go up. The compensation comes in when the price of the stock is higher than the price on the option. For example, if the stock price were to go to $38.125, Cheney could exercie his 33,333 options, buy the stock, then turn around and immediately sell the stock for a profit. In this example, Cheney would make 33,333 x $10 ($38.125 - $28.125) = $330,333.

Regardless of the war in Iraq, the price of HAL stock would have to more than double from it's current price in order to make it worth Cheney's while to exercise his options.

But then again, the price of HAL should likely go up with Halliburton's work in Iraq. However, I still think it's fairly unlikely to go up much any time soon because of the asbestos litigation hanging over Halliburton's head.

[KoKo]

18. It depends on what price he was given the options at...CEO's are given

options in many cases well below market value .....Companies keep stocks at low price in reserve
to give Executives....and so they wouldn't be the market price when he left or now.....you'd have to know the price they were at the time he got them.

[arcane1]

16. so is this "war profiteering"?

:shrug:

[KoKo]

20. Cheney's off the hook unless he lied. Gave Options to Charity....no gun

there. Just got this off Financial Site....disclosure.....there may still be something sleazy there...but this is what is being reported.

"Ms. Martin said the vice president also holds 433,333 in stock options, but that he has donated
the options to charity. The options are overseen by an administrator, who will donate the money
to three charities on Mr. Cheney's behalf: Capital Partners For Education, George Washington
University Medical Faculty Associates and the University of Wyoming.

Mr. Cheney "is still considered the legal owner, but he receives no economic benefit from
them," Ms. Martin said.

Mr. Cheney divested his financial ties to Halliburton during the 2000 campaign. In 2000, Mr.
Cheney reported $36 million in income, the bulk of it from exercising and selling Halliburton
stock options after he left the company in 2000."
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030925/2109001340_3.html