Re: More News About Adelphia

Thought this suit was filed a few months back already??? Typical of our society now - it's always someone else's fault when someone gets caught doing something wrong.....if the Rigas jackasses hadn't been pilfering the money to begin with, the whole scene could have been avoided! Corporate greed will get everyone in the end....

>
> Adelphia Files Lawsuit Against Its Former Auditors, Deloitte & Touche LLP
> November 06, 2002 3:51:00 PM ET
>
> Lawsuit Charges That Deloitte's Professional Negligence, Breach of Contract and Other Breaches Resulted in Billions of Dollars in Damages to Adelphia
>
> COUDERSPORT, Pa., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Adelphia Communications Corporation (OTC: ADELQ) announced today that it has filed suit against Deloitte & Touche LLP, Adelphia's former outside auditor, for Deloitte's role in "one of the most egregious instances of corporate self- dealing and financial chicanery in United States corporate history."
>
> Filed today in state court in Philadelphia, the Company's lawsuit charges Deloitte & Touche with "professional negligence, breach of contract, fraud, and other wrongful conduct. As a direct result of Deloitte's own wrongful conduct, Adelphia has suffered very large damages and was ultimately forced to file for bankruptcy protection."
>
> The lawsuit specifically charges:
>
> 1. Deloitte failed to provide the Company, its Audit Committee and its
> Independent Directors with independent, competent audits.
> 2. Through its audits and access to Adelphia's books and records,
> Deloitte knew of much of the Rigas Family's self-dealing and looting
> of Adelphia. Nearly all of the rest of the Rigases' wrongful conduct
> was readily apparent to Deloitte on the books and records that
> Deloitte reviewed. Thus, Deloitte should have known of all of the
> Rigases' wrongful conduct and should have disclosed it to Adelphia's
> Audit Committee and the independent members of Adelphia's Board.
> 3. Deloitte violated its professional responsibilities and contractual
> obligations as Adelphia's independent auditor. Deloitte failed to
> disclose the corporate abuses that it knew and should have known were
> taking place to the Adelphia Audit Committee or the independent
> members of Adelphia's Board. Deloitte performed its audits and
> certified Adelphia's financial statements without ever qualifying its
> audit reports. Deloitte always rendered a favorable opinion on
> Adelphia's ability to continue as a going concern. Despite the
> massive self-dealing by the Rigases, Deloitte did not even send a
> letter to Adelphia's management (customarily referred to as a
> "management letter") suggesting any changes in Adelphia's corporate
> control practices.
> 4. The Rigas Family never could have accomplished their acts of looting
> and self-dealing had Deloitte fulfilled its professional
> responsibilities to Adelphia by disclosing to Adelphia's Audit
> Committee and independent directors the corporate abuses that it knew
> and should have known were taking place. Through its improper
> conduct, Deloitte acquiesced in the Rigas Family's desire to hide the
> true nature of Adelphia's financial condition from the public and the
> independent members of the Audit Committee and the Board, including,
> during its 2000 audit, by acquiescing in the Rigas Family's desire to
> hide more than one billion dollars of debt that should have been
> disclosed in Adelphia's financial statements.
> 5. Even after expressly considering the issues surrounding the events
> relating to Enron, Deloitte assured the Adelphia Audit Committee three
> days prior to the deadline for filing Adelphia's 2001 financial
> statements that Deloitte had no significant issues with its nearly
> completed audit. Deloitte even told the Chairman of Adelphia's Audit
> Committee that its audit for 2001 was one of the best audits of
> Adelphia that Deloitte had ever produced.
> According to the lawsuit, "These wrongful acts resulted in billions of dollars in damages to the Company - damages which were preventable if Deloitte had acted consistently with its professional responsibilities as Adelphia's outside auditor."
>
> The Company is seeking compensation for all injury suffered as a result of Deloitte & Touche's wrongful conduct as well as punitive damages.
>
> The lawsuit was brought by Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP of Armonk, New York, and the Dechert firm of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
>
> Statement of Adelphia Communications Corporation
>
> "Deloitte's audit failures resulted in billions of dollars in damages to Adelphia, our investors and employees. The Rigas Family never could have accomplished their wrongful acts had Deloitte fulfilled its professional responsibilities to Adelphia by disclosing the corporate abuses that it knew - and should have known - were taking place.
>
> "Deloitte brought further harm to Adelphia by failing to admit its wrongdoing and attempting to cover-up its breaches. Deloitte must be held accountable for acting as if nothing was wrong during the years that the Rigas Family was looting Adelphia, and Adelphia's stakeholders must be compensated for the harm they have suffered as a result of Deloitte's actions."
>
> As previously announced, Adelphia terminated the engagement of Deloitte & Touche on June 9, 2002. Adelphia announced the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the Company's independent accountants on June 14, 2002.
>
> About Adelphia
>
> Adelphia Communications Corporation, with headquarters in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, is the sixth-largest cable television company in the country. It serves 3,500 communities in 32 states and Puerto Rico. It offers analog and digital cable services, high-speed Internet access (Adelphia Power Link), and other advanced services.
>
> Cautionary Statement Regarding Financial and Operating Data
>
> As a result of actions taken by the former management of the Company: (a) the Company has not yet completed its financial statements as of or for the year ended December 31, 2001, or received its independent public accountants' report thereon or filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission") its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001; (b) the Company's former independent public accountants, Deloitte & Touche LLP, suspended their auditing work on the Company's financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2001 and withdrew their audit report with respect to the year ended December 31, 2000; (c) the Company has not yet completed its financial statements as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2002 or June 30, 2002, or filed with the Commission its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2002, June 30, 2002 and does not expect to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending September 30, 2002; and (d) the Company expects to restate its financial statements for the years ended December 31, 1999 and 2000, and its interim financial statements for 2001 and possibly other periods. Current management took control in May 2002 and has retained new independent auditors and begun the preparation of new financial statements for the periods in question; as a result of certain actions of prior management that the Company has previously disclosed, the Company is unable to predict at this time when such financial statements will be completed. In addition, current management believes that the public information provided by prior management on other matters of interest to investors, such as the Company's rebuild percentage (the percentage of the Company's cable television systems that the Company believes have been upgraded to current standards), was unreliable. As a result, the Company anticipates that it may have to supplement the financial and other information contained in this Form 8-K and that such supplemental information may be material.
>
> Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
>
> This document includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. All statements regarding Adelphia Communications Corporation and its subsidiaries' (collectively, the "Company's") expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, restructuring and financing plans, business strategy, budgets, projected costs, capital expenditures, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations and statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and readers must recognize that actual results may differ from the Company's expectations. The Company does not undertake a duty to update such forward-looking statements.
>
> Actual future results and trends for the Company may differ materially depending on a variety of factors discussed in the Company's filings with the Commission, including its recently filed Current Reports on Form 8-K, the most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000, and the most recent prospectus supplement filed under Registration Statement No. 333-64224, under the section entitled "Risk Factors" contained therein. Factors that may affect the plans or results of the Company include, without limitation: (a) the Company's filing of a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code; (b) the results of litigation against the Company including the civil complaint by the Commission and the potential for a criminal indictment of the Company; (c) the lack of substantial cable industry experience among certain members of the Company's senior management; (d) the effects of government regulations and the actions of local cable franchise authorities; (e) the availability of debtor-in-possession financing and surety bonds to support the Company's operations; (f) the results of the Company's internal investigation and the matters described above under "Cautionary Statement Regarding Financial and Operating Data"; (g) actions of the Company's competitors; (h) the pricing and availability of equipment, materials, inventories and programming; (i) product acceptance and customer spending patterns; (j) the Company's ability to execute on its business plans, to provide uninterrupted service to its customers and to conduct, expand and upgrades its networks; (k) technological developments; (l) matters relating to or in connection with the recent bankruptcy filing and proceedings of Adelphia Business Solutions, Inc.; (m) changes in general economic conditions and/or economic conditions in the markets in which the Company may, from time to time, compete; (n) the movement of interest rates and the resulting impact on the Company's interest obligations with respect to its pre-petition bank debt and Debtor-in-Possession financing; and (o) the delisting of the "Company's" common stock by Nasdaq. Many of such factors are beyond the control of the Company and its current management.
>
>