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Former McKesson CFO Found Not Guilty of Securities Fraud
Former McKesson CFO Richard Hawkins was found not guilty by U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins in an opinion (here) issued on July 11 that is the result of a one month bench trial that ended in February. The charges arose from an accounting fraud that took place during and after the completion of a…
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Follow the Cheese As It Goes Round and Round
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the SEC announced the filing of criminal and civil charges against Mark Cocchiola and Steven Venechanos, the former CEO and CFO of Suprema Specialties, Inc., a Patterson NJ-based cheese company related to fraudulent transactions in the company’s products. The defendants were indicted on 38…
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What Will the Reporter’s Notes Reveal? Karl Rove?
It looks like the press is openly naming Karl Rove as someone who was a source to Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper. (see Wall Street Jrl here and NYTimes here). This does not, however, mean that Karl Rove committed a crime. What the prosecutor needs to still determine is who leaked this information to…
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Federal-State Turf Wars Can Cause Problems
Evaluating whether state or federal prosecutors are in the best position to proceed with a prosecution can be an important decision. In some cases it can require examining the law in both systems (state and federal) and determining which jurisdiction provides the prosecution with a sound case Sometimes, however, these decisions are not easy. According…
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Shrek and Donkey Headed to Court on Another Adventure
DreamWorks Animation SKG, the animated film company split off from the larger DeamWorks studio in an IPO last year, is headed for court and embroiled in an SEC insider trading investigation. The company, which produced the Shrek movies among others, had a less-successful release this summer (Madagascar), and in May announced poor first quarter earnings…
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Scrushy – Double Jeopardy Should Preclude Retrial
The Motion to Dismiss the government’s appeal in the Scrushy case is pretty telling. (see Download motion_to_dismiss.pdf) This motion includes as an attachment the judge’s order that dismissed the three counts that the government is appealing. After noting the improper conduct by the government in this case, the order explicitly states – "The Government represented…
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Ebbers Sentencing is Wed. of this Week
The sentencing of Bernard Ebbers is set for this coming Wed. and many are speculating – how long- his sentence will be. After hearing the sentences of John Rigas (15 years and 80 years old), Timothy Rigas his son (20 years), Jamie Olis (24 years), one can only imagine how ridiculously high this upcoming sentence…
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Government Corruption on the City Level
The Dallas Morning News has a wonderful article here discussing recent government corruption cases being prosecuted by the DOJ. They list many cities that have present and future cases related to alleged city corruption or officials. The cities include San Diego, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, etc. They also quote co-blogger Peter Henning on several…
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SEC Lets the Cat Out of the Bag About PCAOB Investigation of Deloitte & Touche
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has launched an investigation of Big Four audit firm Deloitte & Touche in connection with the 2003 audit of Navistar International. Unfortunately for all involved, PCAOB investigations are supposed to remain confidential, but apparently the SEC accidentally disclosed the information by placing the investigation order in its public…
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Untangling a Web of Representation
To say that cases involving the crime-fraud exception are complicated is certainly an understatement, but a recent decision of the First Circuit in In re Grand Jury Investigation* (here) is one of the more Byzantine. The court’s summary of the case, with the usual deletion of identifying information, is as follows: In the course of…
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