Ex-Sunbeam CEO 'Chainsaw Al' settles
The flamboyant and controversial executive, whose ruthless cost-cutting earned him the nickname "Chainsaw Al," agreed yesterday to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that he used improper accounting to produce "materially false and misleading" results while he was chief executive at Sunbeam.
As part of the settlement, Dunlap agreed to a permanent ban on serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company. Dunlap neither admitted nor denied guilt.
Last month, Dunlap also agreed to pay $15 million to settle a Sunbeam shareholder lawsuit.
"That he was able to settle the government charges for half a million and the civil suits against him for $15 million as opposed to breaking rocks in a federal penitentiary for what he did underscores why investors are so disillusioned about executive wrongdoing in corporate America," said hedge-fund manager Jim Chanos, whose funds bet against Sunbeam's shares after Dunlap arrived in 1996.
Information from Bloomberg News is included in this report.