Nortel has more records subpoenaed in US probe

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Nortel Networks Corp said on Thursday that a US grand jury had subpoenaed additional documents in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas.

The telecommunication equipment supplier said in a quarterly filing with US regulators that it received the additional subpoena on 23 August for documents related to the Nortel Retirement Income Plan and the Nortel Long Term Investment Plan.

Nortel announced in May 2004 that it had received a grand jury subpoena to produce documents, including financial statements and corporate, personnel and accounting records, going back to 2000.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Canada's Ontario Securities Commission are also probing Nortel's accounting scandal, which has sparked several lawsuits.

The Brampton, Ontario-based company had to restate years of financial results to correct corporate results, which an independent audit showed had been manipulated.

As it reported third-quarter results on Wednesday, Nortel said that an audit committee studying revenue restatements for 1999 and 2000 had found no additional accounting errors. The audit, announced in January, continues to study reasons for the revenue restatement, the company said.

In its quarterly filing, Nortel also said it would reimburse its incoming chief executive Mike Zafirovski the US$11.5 million he has agreed to repay his former employer, Motorola Inc to settle a lawsuit.