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U.S. markets recover from steep losses
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. jurors deliberated for a second day Friday in a case against two former mid-level AOL executives accused of renegade accounting and shady deal-making.
The six-man, six-woman federal jury in Alexandria, Va., began deliberations following a three-month trial.
Prosecutors allege former America Online business affairs Vice President Kent Wakeford and John Tuli, a former official with AOL's Netbusiness unit, helped Las Vegas software maker PurchasePro meet revenue targets in March and April 2001 by lying to auditors and backdating contracts.
Both companies were struggling to meet analyst expectations and resorted to fraud to preserve the illusion of success as the dot-com economy collapsed, prosecutors said.
The scheme's alleged ringleader, PurchasePro founder Charles Johnson, is scheduled to go on trial in August after the judge declared a mistrial for him in the current trial.
The former AOL executives assert their innocence. Tuli's lawyer told jurors "there has been a complete failure of proof" in the government case, The Washington Post reported.
Prosecutor Charles Connolly urged the jury to remember "a lesson we all learned from the time we were children: Simply tell the truth."
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CANBERRA, Australia, May 23 (UPI) --
Australia has passed legislation establishing the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corp. to provide grants and government investment to green projects.
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MELBOURNE, Fla., May 23 (UPI) --
Northrop Grumman says its Military Airworthiness Certification is closer for its re-engined EC-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft.
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The housing inventory rose slightly in April, which is unusual in the middle of the spring sales season. The uptick may be the result of rising seller confidence and it should ease concerns that the super tight inventory levels of the last six months...
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What if Europe turned out to be the new Japan?
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