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Did Fitzgerald Buy a “Pig in a Poke” From Ari Fleischer?
The common phrase uttered by prosecutors asked to grant immunity (or even enter into a plea deal in exchange for cooperation) is "We won’t buy a ‘pig in a poke.’" Having uttered it myself with no clue what it meant, I once looked up the phrase and learned that in an earlier era pigs (and…
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Federal Charges Knock Out State Prosecution in H-P Pretexting Case
The guilty plea of private investigator Bryan Wagner to federal identity theft charges has led to the dismissal of the state charges filed against him in 2005 because of California’s double jeopardy statute. Wagner was involved in pretexting on behalf of Hewlett-Packard to obtain private telephone records of reporters and company employees to track down…
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More Hurricane Fraud
Natural disasters often bring out the best in people, but the lure of easy money in the aftermath can sure bring out the worst. An indictment in the Southern District of Texas charges five people with a scheme to obtain over 100 payments from FEMA for relief from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. According to a…
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Bribery Charges at Cleveland Housing Agency
Federal prosecutors in Cleveland charged three former officials with the Cleveland Housing Network, a non-profit that rented houses primarily to low-income tenants, on bribery charges for demanding kickbacks from contractors. Two defendants were Regional Coordinators with CHN and the third was a maintenance supervisor, and a press release (here) describes the alleged corruption: [C]ertain contractors…
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Extortion and Reggie Bush
A report on Yahoo.Com (here) states that a federal investigation of possible extortion of former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush includes tapes made by sports marketers who may have given Bush and his family large financial benefits while he was a "student-athlete" at USC. The allegations of improper payments first emerged after Bush finished his…
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Walking Down Memory Lane
The trial of I. Lewis Libby is moving down the the path of triggered memories and challenges to suddenly clearer recollections as the government focuses on when Libby learned that Valerie Plame was a CIA officer and defense counsel challenges the recall of the government witnesses. The government’s second witness was former CIA associate deputy…
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Did Anyone Notice the Bookkeeper’s Lavish Lifestyle?
In the annals of embezzlement cases, this one certainly rates as one of the more audacious for the length of time over which it occurred and the lavish lifestyle the stolen money afforded. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts issued a press release (here) discussing the criminal information filed against Angela B.…
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Opening Day in LibbyLand
Many people have comments about the opening day of the Libby trial. One thing is for certain from the defense opening statement – the name Karl Rove is a name that will be mentioned in the days ahead. And for Karl Rove yet a another stroke of luck (?) as the newspapers will be reporting…
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Steve Jobs on the Hot Seat
It appears that Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs met with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and SEC investigators to explain his role in options backdating at the company in 2001. Apple earlier revealed that "[a]lthough the investigation found that CEO Steve Jobs was aware or recommended the selection…
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Put On a Happy Face at Broadcom
Broadcom Corp. announced the largest restatement to date due to options-timing issues, totaling $2.2 billion, due to inadequate documentation covering the first five years in which it was publicly traded. In the typically bland terms describing such decisions, Broadcom’s 10-K (here) states: From our initial public offering through May 2003, Broadcom’s option grant processes and…
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