CIBER INC. CHAIRMAN DUMPED STOCK BEFORE ELECTION TESTING LAB BARRED

[donsu]

http://www.madcowprod.com/01112007.html


The Chairman of the laboratory which the New York Times revealed has been barred from approving electronic voting machines, after federal investigators discovered appallingly haphazard testing protocols at the firm, dumped 25,000 common shares of stock in the company less than two weeks before the bad news was announced, netting himself almost $175,000, the MadCowMorningNews has learned.

In a little-noticed Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Dec. 21,Ciber,Inc Chairman Bobby G. Stevenson reported he sold the shares for about $6.71 apiece. The stock has fallen since.

The bad news from CIBER, which tests the centralized software that local elections offices employ to tabulate votes recorded by the touch-screens, may even affect the outcome of the hotly-contested Congressional decision in Florida’s 13th District, reported the Sarasota Herald Tribune in a story on the troubled firm with the headline a a story on the troubled firm headlined "CIBER Inc. at center of District 13 controversy.”

-snip-

Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use.

“What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that they tested,” said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins

-snip-

Adding to suspicion, The MadCowMorningNews has learned that CIBER has been the beneficiary of considerable U.S. Federal Government largesse as well, including a $500,000 contract in 2002 from the North American Aerospace Defense Command; a $4 million multiyear contract from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 1999; a $23 MILLION Port Security Contract at Port Freeport, Texas, and a five-year $12.6 million contract from a "major aerospace company" in Colorado whose name, CIBER reported, was being “withheld as per the Contract.”

-snip-

“In January 1998 Merrill Lynch paid CIBER Inc. Chief Executive Bobby G. Stevenson $82 million in cash for his agreement to deliver a chunk of his CIBER shares by Feb. 1, 2001,” reported business magazine Forbes on September 30, 2002.

“It was a sweet deal for Stevenson, whose stock is off 80% since he got the cash. He locked in gains before the tech market tanked, but would not be taxed on his gains until he handed over the shares. Stevenson's deal with Merrill was essentially a prepaid variable forward contract--a "kinky forward," it's been called.”

-snip-

Unmentioned in the New York Times story on CIBER are the firm’s strong GOP connections. Employees and spouses donated more than $72,000 to GOP candidates and groups during the 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

The Center for Responsive Politics found $5,750 worth of campaign contributions from Wyle Laboratories for this year's election. All of the money went to Republicans, including $1,500 to President Bush.

-snip govs. in on it -

Scratch the surface, and sleaze oozes from almost every pore of companies in an industry which has been entrusted with American’s sacred right to vote.
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think your vote counted?

could we do away with stocks and stock markets?

[blm]

1. Every time one of these stories pops up it re-affirms how CORRUPT electronic election business is.

Paper ballots and hand counts NOW with security cameras on every voting place and ballot counting room.

[aquart]

2. Is there an unfired federal prosecutor to go after him?

[helderheid]

3. rec 3 of 100

[Joanne98]

4. rec no 4

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. I imagine the other shareholders will be Republicans, so they won't be well pleased.

But then, if you sup with the devil, you need a long spoon.

Heck, maybe some Republican-leaning DLC minions had invested in them!