Carly Fiorina said on
Fox News Sunday that Hewlett-Packard's budget was "larger than each of the 50 states"—so big, in fact, it was "impossible to ensure" it wasn't engaging in illegal behavior,
reports Ali Elkin. Here's the exchange between host Chris Wallace and Fiorina, who served as HP's CEO from 1999 to 2005:
"The question is what do you do when you find out."
“Are you saying you didn’t know about it?” host Chris Wallace asked.
“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.”
Is it me, or did she fail to answer the question? She
never directly said she had no knowledge. She only said that an investigation proved she had no knowledge. It's an inquiry she was
conflicted about during her 2010 run for the U.S. Senate.
It's also a business partnership that worked out so well, HP became Iran's top seller of printers with 41 percent of the market share by 2007. The stellar performance earned the foreign subsidiary that was making the sales, Redington Gulf, high praise from HP.
Wallace asked Fiorina why HP had named Redington Gulf its "Wholesaler of the Year" award in 2003 if the company wasn't aware of its sales to Iran, Fiorina again deflected blame.
"The wholesaler of the year that you're describing was doing business with another company that was doing business with Iran. Clearly that wholesaler of the year, which should not have been wholesaler of the year, was not honest in their dealings with us, and they were not honest in their dealings with this third company."