Whoa—that was a big one! Even for me.
Carly Fiorina is developing a
nasty little habit of
embellishing lying about
nearly everything.
Another fact-turned-fiction turn of events came Sunday when Fiorina insisted that an SEC investigation had "proved" she had no knowledge of Hewlett-Packard's extensive printer sales in Iran, which were illegal, when she led the company from 1999 to 2005.
“In fact, the SEC investigation proved that neither I nor anyone else in management knew about it…” she insisted, adding, “...when the company discovered this three years after I left, they cut off all ties. The SEC investigated very thoroughly and concluded that no one in management was aware.”
Turns out that "investigation"
never happened. Rather, the SEC inquired about HP's printer sales in Iran, HP execs responded, and the SEC ultimately didn't open an investigation,
reports Eric Schmeltzer:
There is no record of the Enforcement Division -- the only division that performs investigations -- taking up the matter. Thus, no investigation was performed.
In fact, her 2010 Senate campaign team seemed a little more burdened by the truth
in its framing of the issue.
"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquired about the matter, but the company has never been found in violation of U.S. trade embargoes."
The notion that HP ended up dominating 41 percent of Iran's printer market by 2007 and Fiorina allegedly had no knowledge of that is beyond suspect. (A 2003 press release from the foreign subsidiary that sold the printers in Iran, Redington Gulf, stated that its relationship with HP had begun in 1997 to concentrate on "
one market—Iran.") But in her Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, Fiorina actually used the SEC "investigation" as a
deflection tactic, failing to ever answer directly whether she had any knowledge of the sales to Iran. I'd like to hear that question asked again and again until she actually answers it ... without lying.