That move, critics say, allows companies to overstate their earnings.

The commission said that the company had overstated the value of assets on its books.

Investigators believe the company overstated costs and deliberately ordered unnecessary tests to increase Medicare payments.

The suit also said that the company had overstated the cost savings from the merger and understated the layoffs being planned.

Over all, analysts say, the company may have overstated its revenue by as much as $277 million over the last two and a half years.

Among the problems: inflated executive compensation and creative accounting that allows companies to overstate their profits.

The former officials said the company routinely overstated both profits and cash on its balance sheet.

The company overstated results by $2.7 billion to $4.6 billion.

The investigation found that the company had overstated sales to give the illusion of unlimited growth in recent years.

It's not just that companies overstate their profits by failing to count options as an expense.