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Ex-Nortel CFO Rendered Speechless After Accounting Fraud Acquittal

An Ontario judged dismissed a case against three former Nortel Networks Corp. executives who were charged with accounting fraud at what was once North America’s largest telephone-equipment maker before its collapse in 2009. Judge Frank Marrocco said the burden of proof was not met in fraud charges against former Chief Executive Officer Frank Dunn, former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly. Marrocco made the ruling today in Toronto. “I am not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt” that the three executives “deliberately misrepresented the financial results of Nortel Networks,” Marrocco wrote in his 141-page ruling.Greg Lafontaine, Beatty’s lawyer, said the decision was “fantastic.” The verdict “was bang on with what the evidence dictated,” he told reporters outside the court house. Beatty, standing next to his lawyer, smiled but said nothing. Beatty will now be “moving on,” Lafontaine said. [Bloomberg]