In accounting for swaps, Qwest recognized large amounts of revenue immediately, which was an aggressive method relative to the rest of the telecommunications industry. Yet Qwest capitalized its costs related to purchasing capacity from others as long-term assets that were amortized over the 20-25 year terms of the IRUs. During 2000 and 2001 the frequency, dollar amount, and number of swap transactions grew as Qwest tried to meet its aggressive revenue targets in the face of declining demand for fiber optic assets. Internally some Qwest managers and employees referred to these transactions using the acronym of “SLUTS,” which stood for simultaneous, legally unrelated transactions. In fact most of Qwest’s swaps were completed as directed by members of senior management in the waning days and hours of each quarter in desperate attempts to achieve previously stated revenue targets. Pressure from senior management allegedly even motivated employees to backdate contracts to falsely demonstrate that a contract was “completed” by the end of the quarter. For example, the company recorded revenue of $69.8 million in the first quarter of 2001 on a swap transaction with Cable & Wireless that had not closed until after the quarter (on April 12,2001) by backdating the contract to March 30, 2001. In another example of backdating, in the third quarter