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NEW YORK (AP) - When companies are forced to correct their accounting, they like to portray these financial restatements as a cleansing, isolated affair that sets the record straight.
But while most companies don't make a habit of revising their past earnings reports, one visit to the accounting confessional can lead to an encore appearance, making it best to view restatements with the suspicious eye of an exterminator: where there's one, there may be more.
In just the past few weeks, investors have been forced to reckon with announcements that there will be more restatements to come at communications equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., mortgage lender Fannie Mae and insurer American International Group Inc., despite earlier management assertions to the contrary.
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