Business

Former McKesson executive acquitted

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 1, 2005

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A federal judge in San Francisco found Richard Hawkins, the former chief financial officer of McKesson Corp., not guilty of all fraud charges related to an accounting scandal that wiped out $9 billion of the San Francisco-based company's market capitalization in 1999.

Hawkins is the first of seven people to stand trial for their alleged involvement in the fraud, which was uncovered after McKesson, a pharmaceutical distributor, acquired HBO & Co. for about $14 billion in 1999.

Of the all the executives charged with fraud, Hawkins is the only one who worked for McKesson before the merger of the two firms, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The others worked at HBOC, a health care software company. Four of them have already pleaded guilty and two are awaiting trial.

Earlier this year, McKesson agreed to pay $960 million to settle a class-action lawsuit arising from the accounting fraud. It also increased its reserves by an additional $240 million for its potential exposure from other lawsuits not covered by that settlement.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/08/01/bibf0801.htm.

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