DENVER—A judge is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to hold settlement talks with the remaining two former Qwest Communications International Inc. employees named in its 6-year-old civil fraud lawsuit.
Lawyers for the SEC, former Qwest Chief Financial Officer Robert Woodruff and former Qwest accountant Frank Noyes told U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer on Wednesday they were open to it.
The SEC contends the way Qwest reported certain sales in 1999 through 2001 gave investors a skewed view of the Denver-based company’s performance. It filed its lawsuit against former Qwest executives and accountants in 2005, months after Qwest agreed to pay $250 million to settle SEC allegations of “massive financial fraud.”
The SEC’s claims against the other defendants including former CEO Joseph Nacchio have been dismissed or settled.
