HOUSTON -- Halliburton Co. will pay $7.5 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into allegations that it failed to disclose a change in its accounting procedures in 1998 when the oil services conglomerate was run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Besides the company's fine, former Halliburton controller, Robert C. Muchmore, Jr., will pay a $50,000 penalty, the SEC announced Tuesday.
The company and Muchmore neither admit nor deny the SEC's findings that the company didn't properly disclose the accounting change, which recognized revenue from unapproved claims on long-term construction projects.
The commission said the undisclosed accounting change caused Halliburton's public statements regarding its income in 1998 and 1999 to be materially misleading.
