Probe slams Vivendi's agressive accounting 02/01/2008 00:00

Report by financial investigators which sharply criticises Vivendi Universal's accounting practices

PARIS, January 2, 2008 - Prosecutors have been given a report by
financial investigators which sharply criticises Vivendi Universal's
accounting practices under former CEO Jean-Marie Messiere, La Tribune reported
on Wednesday.
   The report denounces "aggressive"  bookkeeping involving "sophisticated
legal and financial engineering," the financial daily said.
   The report has been turned over to financial prosecutors Henri Pons and
Jean-Marie d'Huy, La Tribune added.
   The probe was opened in 2002 following a complaint by an association of
small investors.
   Messier, who was forced out head of the French media and telecommunications
group in 2002, was fined one million euros by France's stock market regulator
in 2005 for having failed to properly inform the market and shareholders
between 2000 and 2002.
   The fine was reduced to 500,000 euros on appeal, with a one-million-euro
fine on Vivendi Universal slashed to 300,000 euros.

(AFP)