Canadian telecoms giant Nortel Networks has released restated results for 2003, in what it seen as a key step on the road out of a damaging accounting crisis which led to a purge of top executives.
The firm also appointed a chief ethics and compliance officer, to help navigate out of a scandal which spawned regulatory and criminal probes both north and south of the US border.
Top executives also agreed to pay back multi-million dollar bonuses in a bid to remake the tattered image of their company, a pioneer in the broadband and wireless telecoms sectors.
'With the completion of our restatements we have a solid foundation on which to move forward with our business,' said Bill Owens, a former US navy admiral brought in as president and CEO to steer Nortel out of crisis.
Owens said the character of the firm's new leadership was evidenced by the fact that 12 senior executives not implicated in the scandal had pledged to pay back bonuses totalling $8.6m.
According to the restated results, the firm made a profit of $434m in 2003 compared with its originally stated figure of $732m.
The depth of Nortel's misery became clear in April when it shocked investors by firing then president and CEO Frank Dunn and two other top executives.
