=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/01/24/f= inancial0840EST0024.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, January 24, 2003 (AP) Inquiry commission criticizes management of bankrupt Swissair (01-24) 05:40 PST ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- The leadership of the now defunct Swiss flag carrier Swissair made serio= us mistakes prior to the airline's collapse, but it is unclear whether this will have any legal consequences, an official report said Friday. In a long-awaited 3,300 page report, the management consultancy firm Ern= st & Young said the sudden grounding of the carrier on Oct. 2, 2001 -- leaving thousands of passengers stranded -- was unnecessary because Swissair had 123 million Swiss francs (then worth $76.9 million) at its disposal, and not just the 14.5 million francs it claimed. Swissair's parent company SAirGroup was heavily indebted at the end of 2000. But the company's accounting practices masked the gravity of the financial crisis, the report said. It criticized Swissair's board and its auditors for being negligent. It also said that Swissair, by taking sizable stakes in troubled European carriers, failed to comply with its own strategy calling for minority holdings of 10 percent to 30 percent. The law firm overseeing Swissair's liquidation, Wenger Plattner, said the report would be studied in depth before any decision was taken on possible legal action against Swissair's former management. A decision would not be made until the second half of the year, it said. Swissair was long a symbol of reliability and quality. After its abrupt demise, the Swiss government and big banks were forced to inject billions of dollars into a new airline, called Swiss. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP