St. Louis, Mo. (Aug. 19, 2002) -- Charter Communications acknowledge that it's being investigated for how the cable television company accounts for some expenses.
The company, controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis late last week, seeking information on how the company records costs for current and disconnected cable TV subscribers.
In February, Charter said it would change how it deals with deadbeat customers. The company said it had tightened its collection policy and procedures, and eventually disconnected 145,000 "marginal" customers from its basic customer account.
The company is also the defendant in a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders filed in July, accusing Charter of issuing a series of false and misleading statements to the market from 1999 through July of this year. The suit claims that Charter issued quarterly reports which boosted earnings by improperly capitalizing the firm's labor costs.
The company denied any wrongdoing and said it is cooperating with the probe.
-- Electronic Accountant Newswire staff
