Legal watchdog accuses US Vice President of fraud

A legal watchdog group is suing US Vice President Dick Cheney and the oil services company he ran for five years, alleging fraudulent accounting practices.

The lawsuit by Washington-based Judicial Watch alleges that the accounting fraud led to shareholder losses, claiming the company, Halliburton, overstated revenues by €455m from 1999 through the end of 2001.

‘‘Halliburton overstated profits that many American citizens relied upon. That’s fraudulent security practices and it resulted in those Americans suffering huge losses,’’ said Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch said the lawsuit had been filed in Dallas.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said he talked to the vice president’s staff and ‘‘they believe the suit is without merit and that’s where it stands.’’

Cheney was chairman and chief executive of the oil field-services giant from 1995 to 2000. Halliburton announced on May 28 that it received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission that the commission was looking into Halliburton’s accounting methods - adopted in 1998 - for reporting cost overruns on construction jobs.

The SEC has not filed any charges against Halliburton.

Judicial Watch alleges those accounting practices resulted in overvaluation of Halliburton’s shares, deceiving investors.

‘‘We don’t believe that there’s any merit to this case,’’ Halliburton spokeswoman Zelma Branch said before the suit was filed.

The suit against Cheney comes the day after President George Bush called for tougher penalties to fight the corporate corruption that has engulfed several high-profile companies in recent months.

Judicial Watch filed dozens of lawsuits against the Clinton administration. The group’s case for access to White House e-mails revealed that thousands of the messages escaped scrutiny during investigations of Monica Lewinsky, Democratic fund raising, the gathering of FBI files and others.