Friday, December 17, 2004

Disaffected Greenbrier director assails company's audit conduct

Alan James, the former chairman and current director of The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. who is feuding with fellow board members, accused the railcar maker this week of violating federal corporate accountability laws.

James alleged in a Monday, Dec. 13, letter to the Lake Oswego-based company that its audit committee violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by using its longtime outside counsel and company secretary, Kenneth D. Stephens, to audit the company's European operations for possible accounting irregularities.

James wrote that under the 2002 law the company should have hired an independent outside lawyer to investigate the alleged improprieties.

James, who has requested two inquiries into the accounting of the company's European operations in the past two years, said the resulting audit committee report was given to company auditors with false and misleading statements, and material omissions.

Greenbrier, which disclosed James' allegations Thursday in a prepared statement, said the charges "are without merit." The company said it "stands firmly" behind its financial records and that the audit committee review found "no unusual or unacceptable practices."

The company called James a "dissident shareholder" whose views have "grown out of harmony" with the rest of the company's board.

Disaffected Greenbrier director assails company's audit conduct

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