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Lawyering Up at the White House, Part Deux
An earlier post (here) discussed recent hires into the White House counsel’s office of lawyers with experience in white collar crime investigations. Now President Bush’s chief legal counsel, erstwhile Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, has stepped down amid claims that the White House needs a lawyer with greater experience in dealing with investigations, something outside…
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KPMG Off the Hook
KPMG entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government, offering cooperation and money as a part of the agreement. Carrie Johnson of the Washington Post reports that the government has now dismissed the criminal charge it filed (conspiracy) finding that KPMG had met the terms of the agreement. The terms of the agreement included…
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Required Reading
Malcolm Gladwell’s article titled, Open Secrets, in The New Yorker Magazine is a required reading assignment for all teaching, learning, or writing about white collar crime. It is a truly amazing commentary on what happened at Enron, and what didn’t happen by outsiders. The piece provides a whole new perspective to the Skilling sentence and…
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Backdating at Marvell Technology Group?
Many a company are examining their stock option grants to see if any were engaged in backdating. They may be asking whether the grants deliberately set dates that would allow some individuals to secure a higher income. As noted in the New York Times, this inquiry occurred at Marvell Technologies with a result that several…
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Two Former College Administrators Avoid Prison Time
Two former college administrators of Morris Brown College in Georgia were sentenced for their involvement in "a financial aid fraud scheme." A press release of the U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Georgia finds the US Attorney supporting the sentence of no prison time, following the entry of guilty pleas. He stated, "[t]he facts…
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Anticipated Plea for Former Massachusetts House Speaker
The Boston Globe is reporting that Tom Finneran, the former speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives is anticipated to be pleading guilty this coming Friday. The federal indictment had charged Finneran with perjury and obstruction of justice. (see Worcester Telegram & Gazette) Some details on the investigation are posted at Common Cause. (esp)
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Causey Off to Prison
Richard Causey, former chief accounting officer of Enron, was to report to prison yesterday. (See Houston Chronicle) He received a 66 month sentence for his role in the Enron debacle, after pleading guilty to one count of securities fraud. Causey had been scheduled to be tried with Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, but then entered…
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Kaye Scholer Adds Another Voice on the McNulty Memo
Yet another voice critiques the McNulty Memo. This time it comes from Kaye Scholer White Collar Litigation and Internal Investigations Group Update. Their take on the memo – Download white_collar_update_jan_2007.pdf like so many others, finds flaws in the latest Justice Department attempt to keep Congress from intervening. Unlike some others, they are not as optimistic…
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Connecticut Attorney Pleads Guilty
A press release of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut reports on a plea entered by a Connecticut Attorney to the crime of bank fraud. The case arises from the attorney acting as "a closing attorney in connection with the refinancing of mortgage loans." The press release states that after receiving the money "from the…
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The Changing of the Guard -Spitzer and Cuomo
Not surprisingly, Eliot Spitzer’s website as N.Y.’s 54th Governor is up and running, and his inaugural address touching on an ethics agenda was noted by the NYTimes. In his final days as Attorney General he settled the MetLife case to the tune of 19 million dollars. The press release notes that: "The agreement settled allegations…
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