The BBC report, broadcast in late May, suggested that the government had deliberately overstated its case and misled the public with information that its own security chiefs knew to be unreliable.

The El Paso Corporation, the troubled Houston energy company, said yesterday that an outside investigation had found that some employees might have deliberately overstated oil and gas reserves and that it would need to restate five years of results.

However, there were suspicions in the Cabinet that Macmillan had deliberately overstated the financial situation in order to force Eden out.

Five days later, Mr. Cannon furnished the general counsel with graphs that he contended showed that a company subsidiary, the Kinney Shoe Corporation, had deliberately overstated gross profit margins.

But sometimes the figures were deliberately overstated, they said, to increase state aid, which is partly based on attendance.

Appraisal fraud: Occurs when a home's appraised value is deliberately overstated or understated.

El Paso Says It Will Restate Results The El Paso Corporation said that an outside investigation had found that some employees might have deliberately overstated oil and gas reserves and that it would need to restate five years of results.

There were claims in the Daily Mail that the show's producers had deliberately overstated his bullying as a "sob story", suggesting that sympathy rather than his singing got him many of the votes.

That means that companies either deliberately overstated or understated needed reserves, or they found significant errors, he said.

"He's deliberately overstated the expense of the restoration."