When Martin L. Grass, the former Rite Aid Corp. chairman and CEO, was indicted in late June along with three other company managers, prosecutors tipped their hats to Joe Speaker ― a little-known executive at the drugstore chain. Soon after becoming acting chief financial officer at Rite Aid in 1999, Speaker uncovered numerous errors in the company's accounts. He told Grass that the problems were serious enough to require a major restatement but feared the CEO would brush them aside. At the time, the Camp Hill (Pa.) company desperately needed to raise capital to pay debt from an acquisition spree. Grass was pleading with banks to extend a line of credit while trying to persuade the Securities & Exchange Commission to stop holding up a share offering.
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