Free Republic

This story will not sound like the truth to you, but nonetheless, it is true. Felix Sater, who Democrats are calling as their second witness is a long time Clinton bud and a man who pulled off a $40 million dollar fraud, with a major assist from Loretta Lynch. He is also allegedly a major source for the fake Hillary dossier. In 1998, Felix Sater was about to be tried for fraud over $40 million dollars he stole from victims. He faced having to repay the $40 million and serving up to 20 years in prison. Then fate and Loretta...

A former federal prosecutor has emerged as special counsel Robert Mueller’s most persistent courtroom critic. It’s not Rudy Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney and now President Trump’s ubiquitous defender, or any of cable TV’s prosecutors-turned-pundits. He is Eric A. Dubelier, a litigator for the Reed Smith law firm who knows international law and the D.C. playing field. He served eight years prosecuting cases as a Justice Department assistant U.S. attorney in Washington. He refers to his former employer as “the real Justice Department,” implying that Mr. Mueller’s team is something less. His biting remarks have come in months of court...

Document at link. Weissman is Mueller's #2.

Politics: After she destroyed Arthur Andersen in a flawed and subsequently overturned prosecution, the Senate has confirmed Leslie Caldwell to lead the DOJ's criminal division, giving her a mandate for even more mayhem. You'd think someone who had thrown 85,000 people out of work, as this former Enron task force chief prosecutor did in her indictment of Arthur Andersen, before the whole thing was thrown out by a 9-0 Supreme Court, would go quietly from the public spotlight. Not so with Caldwell, a notoriously anti-business activist who in concert with the Obama White House is instead failing upward. Her appointment...

<p>The story is all too familiar. Several months ago, before WorldCom and in the wake of Enron and Global Crossing, Peregrine Systems, Inc., a lesser-known San Diego-based software company, announced it had overstated its earnings by $100 million — while "independent" accounting firm Arthur Andersen was overseeing the books. Another corporation, another lie, and another investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.</p>

The trial of nine defendants in the KPMG tax shelter case is due to get under way soon in New York. All nine-- eight former KPMG partners and one outside lawyer-- have pleaded not guilty, despite an admission of wrongdoing by the company and a pledge by KPMG to cooperate with the government.... KPMG's cooperation with the feds was part of the price it paid to avoid a threatened indictment of the firm as a whole. As Arthur Andersen learned the hard way, that would have been a death sentence. KPMG has also agreed to cut its former partners off...

KPMG avoided the fate of Arthur Andersen yesterday... over the marketing and sale of "abusive" tax shelters. But the price of survival was high. The accounting firm will pay $456 million in fines and restitution and has agreed to let a federal monitor look over its shoulder. At the same time, no fewer than eight former KPMG executives and an outside lawyer were indicted on conspiracy charges for designing and selling the shelters.... KPMG will survive this "deferred prosecution" by admitting wrongdoing. But it's easy to forget amid the righteous indignation over tax shelters with names like FLIP, BLIP, OPIS...

The Supreme Court has now ruled that it was excessive prosecutorial zeal and inadequate jury instruction that destroyed Arthur Andersen in 2002, not the merits of the federal obstruction-of-justice case.... Thus, the excesses of a few corporate swingers led to suspicions that hanky-panky was the ruling ethos in every corporate boardroom. Naderites, Hollywood pundits, Marxist professors and left-wing journals piled on with assurances that they had been right about capitalists all along. [A] Congress never reluctant to make work for fellow lawyers whooped through the Sarbanes-Oxley bill.... The sour public mood has had other effects. Staffers at the Securities and...

June 3, 2005 Arthur Andersen and the Innocent Criminals The importance of a guilty mind Jacob Sullum If Arthur Andersen were a man on death row, he could be released after his conviction was overturned. But the accounting firm, which was ruined by a 2002 witness tampering indictment that scared away its clients, is beyond saving. As a law professor told The New York Times, "The government gave the corporation a death sentence, and the corporation died." Andersen, which once had 28,000 employees in the United States, has been reduced to a skeleton crew of 200. The U.S. Supreme...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court tossed the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, saying that the judges instructions to the jury were not defined well enough. Unfortunately, there isn't anyone at Arthur Andersen to celebrate the victory. Almost all of the accounting firms employees lost their jobs following Andersen's demise over the shredfest at Enron. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote "The jury instructions at issue simply failed to convey the requisite consciousness of wrongdoing, It is striking how little culpability the instructions required."

As a unanimous Supreme Court... announced its reversal of the 2002 criminal conviction of Arthur Andersen for shredding Enron-related documents, our first thought was: ..."Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" Except that in this case, even if the proverbial office existed, there is no one left at Andersen to knock on the front door and demand restitution. The accounting giant, which once employed 28,000 people in the U.S. and 85,000 world-wide, is essentially no more. There's still an office in Chicago, but the fewer than 200 people who work there handle leftover legal and administrative...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse. In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 obstruction-of-justice conviction _ which virtually destroyed Andersen _ was improper. The decision said jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice. "The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court. The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which made...

WASHINGTON, April 27 - The federal government had a hard time three years ago obtaining a conviction of Arthur Andersen for having shredded its Enron documents as the energy company, its major client, was imploding. A jury in Houston took 10 days and declared itself deadlocked before convicting the accounting firm of a single criminal count of witness tampering. But the challenge the government faced then looked easy compared with the one confronting it in the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning as the justices heard Arthur Andersen's appeal. The justices were so clearly sympathetic to Andersen, with Justice Antonin Scalia...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said today it will consider overturning Arthur Andersen LLP's conviction for destroying and altering Enron Corp.-related documents. Justices will review a New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction. At issue is whether the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly what constituted obstruction of justice. Andersen was charged with obstruction of justice for inducing mass destruction of Enron-related documents in late 2001 as the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the energy company's convoluted finances....

...In an era of general acceptance of deregulation and privatization, Mr. Spitzer has introduced the world to yet a new form of regulation, the use of the criminal law as an in terrorem weapon to force acceptance of industry-wide regulations. These rules are not vetted through normal authoritative channels, are not reviewable by any administrative process, and are not subject to even the minimal due-process requirements our courts require for normal administrative rule making. The whole process bears no resemblance to a rule of law; it is a reign of force. And to make matters worse, the regulatory remedies are...

From where I sit this week, knowing what I know today about CBS and Dan Rather's "Memogate", I'd say it's entirely possible that the whole CBS News empire could instantly implode the way that Enron and Arthur Andersen did. A few years ago, in the roaring 90's stock market environment, Enron and Arthur Andersen were giants in their respective fields. Enron in the energy business, Arthure Anderson in the accounting realm. Both almost untouchable mega companies with thousands of employees. Today they are both gone. Zilch. Nada. Game over. see more at http://partisannewsjunkie.blogspot.com

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Former Enron CEO and Chairman Kenneth Lay will likely be indicted this week, sources close to the investigation told CNN Monday. While a last-minute delay was still possible, federal authorities involved with the Justice Department's Enron Task Force expect a federal grand jury next week will return an indictment of Lay, these people said, speaking on condition that they not be identified. They would not discuss what charges might be brought against Lay. The Justice Department would not comment on the reports of a possible indictment. Lay, 62, guided Enron for years, shaping the once-obscure pipeline...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp. (Other OTC:ENRNQ - news) chief executive Jeff Skilling likely was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury and was expected to surrender to the FBI (news - web sites) in Houston on Thursday, a newspaper reported. The Houston Chronicle cited unnamed sources saying that Skilling, 50, was believed to have been named in a sealed indictment handed up to U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy by the grand jury foreman. The grand jury, which was formed nearly two years ago for the Enron cases that followed the former energy giant's collapse into bankruptcy, met...

think3, the fastest growing company in the product lifecycle management (PLM) industry, today announced that former Andersen Consulting Chief Executive Officer George T. Shaheen has joined its board of directors. During the 10 years Shaheen led Andersen Consulting (today known as Accenture), annual revenue of the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm increased nine-fold to nearly $10 billion. Accenture ended its 2003 fiscal year with $11.82 billion in net revenue. "think3 already has achieved many milestones on its road to global success," Shaheen said. "I look forward to working with think3's management team to bring to market industry-leading...

BEFORE THE BELL-2: Freddie Mac Fires Op Chief; CFO Leaves Freddie Mac (FRE) shares were down after announcing management departures and bad news about earnings restatements early Monday. The mortgage-finance company's chief financial officer, Vaughn Clarke, will resign, and the company's chief operating officer and president, David Glenn, has been fired due to questions about his honesty to the company's audit committee counsel. Freddie Mac also said earlier restatements for fiscal 2000, 2001 and 2002 results will likely be completed by late in the third quarter. Shares fell to $50.60, down 15%, or $9.27, from their Friday close of $59.87....