And the company faces lawsuits from shareholders who say they were misled about Elan's profitability by its questionable accounting.

Reliant's announcement deepened investors' worries about questionable accounting and business practices at the independent power producers.

Those concerns have hurt the company's stock price, though not severely, perhaps because the questionable accounting had the effect of reducing reported earnings, rather than inflating them.

The questionable accounting will result in the restatement of financial results for all of the fiscal year 1993, the company said.

Next came several controversies, including questions raised over whether the company's earnings might have benefited from questionable accounting.

Many say he resigned out of anger about questionable accounting.

Those problems go much deeper than a rotten quarter or questionable accounting.

He argued that both the Filmon and Doer governments used questionable accounting to present the province as having a surplus budget.

Mr. White has said that he was unaware of the questionable accounting and did not sell based on inside information.

Auditors are less likely to stand up to clients about questionable accounting for fear of losing their consulting business, critics say.