Dean Buntrock

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|Dean L. Buntrock (born 1931) is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Waste Management, Inc. In 2002, he was indicted by the Securitues and Exchange Commission, along with other officers of the company, on multiple counts of fraud relating to the company's financial practices.

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[edit] Early career

Born in Columbia, South Dakota, Buntrock began learning about business working for his father, Rudy Buntrock, who managed the International Harvester farm equipment dealership, hardware store, and Standard Oil Bulk Station. At an early age, Dean showed signs that he was an entrepreneur by raising his own chickens and growing potatoes to sell to local restaurants. In 1952, during the Korean War, Dean went into the army. He attended finance school at Fort Benjamin Harrison. After he was discharged, Dean went back to St. Olaf College (where the current student center, Buntrock Commons, is named after him) and graduated in 1955. In 1956, when Dean's father-in-law died, Dean was brought to manage the family business. The company at that time operated 12 garbage trucks and had revenues each year of $750,000. Dean quickly realized the largest profits were in the disposal of garbage. Buntrock formed a national association for waste management and served as its first president.

[edit] Merger

In 1968, Dean combined his company with Wayne Huizenga's and Larry Beck's disposal companies. Their merger formed Waste Management, Inc. After going public, the company saw tremendous growth over the next 20 years. In the early 1970s, Waste Management, Inc. grew to a worldwide waste disposal company operating in 21 countries. They provided clean water, clean energy, and environmental consulting services, as well as the waste disposal service which earned them revenues of over $10 billion. In 1993, the name of the company was changed to WMX Technologies.

[edit] Indictments

In 2002, Dean Buntrock, as well as the other officers of Waste Management Inc., were indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The charges were multiple counts of fraud from 1992 through 1997. According to the SEC, the defendants falsified documents and misrepresented Waste Management's financial results to enrich themselves as well as keep their jobs. The names of the people indicted are:

According to the SEC's web page: "Defendants' scheme was simple. They improperly eliminated or deferred current period expenses in order to inflate earnings. For example, they avoided depreciation expenses by extending the estimated useful lives of the Company's garbage trucks while, at the same time, making unsupported increases to the trucks' salvages values. In other words, the more the trucks were used and the older they became, the more the defendants said they were worth. Defendants, among other things, also

  • made other unsupported changes in depreciation estimates,
  • failed to record expenses for decreases in the value of landfills as they were filled with waste,
  • failed to record expenses necessary to write off the costs of impaired and abandoned landfill development projects,
  • established inflated environmental reserves (liabilities) in connection with acquisitions so that the excess reserves could be used to avoid recording unrelated environmental and other expenses,
  • improperly capitalized a variety of expenses, and
  • failed to establish sufficient reserves (liabilities) to pay for income taxes and other expenses."

Shareholders - including those holding mutual funds, pension funds, individual investors, retirement accounts, and other investors - lost over $6 billion when the Company's improper accounting was revealed. The stock price at that time dropped over 33%. The new management announced what at that time was the largest restatement in history, an overstatement of 1.7 billion dollars.

In addition to the overstatement, Buntrock, along with Rooney and Koenigm sold WM's stock during the fraudulent period. Buntrock directed the sale of Waste Management shares held by a private foundation he controlled, which was created to dispense Buntrock's charitable gifts. In the spring of 1996, Buntrock directed the sale of 310,000 WM shares held by the foundation, which represented all of the companies stock held by the foundation. As set forth here, each sold Company stock as follows:

[edit] Buntrock's trading

Date Sold Price Total Stock Sold Loss Avoided using (using 10/31 close)
11/23-27/92 137,128 $40.00 $5,485,120 $2,305,465
12/30/1992 38,906 $40.50 $1,575,693 $673,560
08/07/1997 94,698 $32.63 $3,089,522 $893,712
08/13/1997 50,000 $32.07 $1,603,250 $443,875
Sub Total 320,732 $11,753,585 $4,316,612

[edit] References

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