Potential Qwest witnesses to appear in court

The Denver Post

Andy Vuong
January 9, 2010

Several potential expert witnesses will appear in federal court next week in a civil fraud case pending against five former Qwest officials, including former chief executive Joe Nacchio.

Hearings will be held from Tuesday to Thursday to determine whether the experts will be allowed to testify during trial. The potential witnesses are Sharon K. Black, Sally L. Hoffman, Elliot Lesser and Scott C. Chandler, according to court documents.

Black and Chandler would testify as telecom experts for the defense, said attorney Kevin Evans, who represents co-defendant James Kozlowski, a former Qwest accountant. Hoffman and Lesser would testify for the Securities and Exchange Commission as accounting experts.

The SEC accuses Nacchio, Kozlowski, former Qwest president Afshin Mohebbi, former chief financial officer Robert Woodruff and former accountant Frank Noyes of orchestrating a fraud that inflated the Denver company's revenue by $3 billion from 1999 to 2002.

Several other former executives were also named in the 2005 lawsuit but settled the charges.

Evans said there are about a dozen potential expert witnesses. The others will be reviewed during hearings in February or later. A pretrial conference is scheduled for June 29, and U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger has said she wants the trial to begin within 30 to 60 days of that conference.

However, Evans doesn't think the trial will begin until 2011 because of its potential length. He estimates that the trial could include testimony from several dozen witnesses and last as long as 12 weeks.

Nacchio began serving a six-year prison term in April for his separate 2007 criminal insider-trading conviction.

Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com