When things settled down, however, he had a reported profit of $34 million by selling his holdings back to Bally.

That would reduce the reported profit on the home.

Under certain circumstances, they would also have to adjust their reported profit to reflect changes in the derivatives' value.

Amortizing that good will is expected to cut reported profits by about $150 million a year, Lockheed said.

By itself, that move would knock $29 million off its reported profit for this quarter.

The agency says only that the reported pretax profit of $20.6 million really concealed a "substantial loss."

Last time around, the restatement turned the reported profit for the first half of 2001 into a small loss.

The process worked, and the resulting naphtha was resold for a reported profit of $19 million.

The "hidden funds" can then be put back into the reported profit of a company in a bad quarter.

That cost would not be a cash charge, but it would reduce reported profit.