United States: Chainsaw Al may discover the first cut was not the deepest

Poor Al Dunlap. Already at the standard retirement age of 65 and worth about $100 million, the former head of Sunbeam has to fork over $500,000 to federal officials and vow that he'll never serve as an officer or director of any public company.

The agreement with the Securities & Exchange

Nicknamed "Chainsaw Al" for his adeptness at making cuts-including laying off thousands of workers at Sunbeam and many more when he was at Scott PaperDunlap neither admitted nor denied the allegations that the SEC brought in a civil suit filed last year.

The federal securities agency says the fine takes into account Dunlap's $15 million payment to Sunbeam shareholders in a class action suit that won a judge's approval this summer.

At first glance, it seems Dunlap, whose name has been linked to accounting fraud since the 1970s when he was president of Nitec Paper, may be getting off lightly. After all, the latest round of corporate scandals at companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing has regulators and prosecutors seeking criminal charges and bringing out the handcuffs for some highly publicized arrests.

But Chainsaw Al may not yet be out of the woods.

Less than a week after his September settlement, reports emerged that the US Justice Department is investigating financial practices at Sunbeam during Dunlap's reign as CEO and chairman.

According to documents Sunbeam filed recently with a bankruptcy court, the US attorney's office in Manhattan"is conducting an investigation into events that occurred" from 1996 to 1998. -Paula L. Green