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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The real message of the Gates affair
Despite America's dubious legacy of exercising state power to oppress minorities, that legacy really was not the most important dynamic in play in regard to the improper arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Rather, the real issue here...
The criminalization-of-business lottery
The owners of Long Term Capital Management may have been the earliest winners in the most recent era of what Larry Ribstein has coined the criminalization-of-business lottery. On the other hand, Jamie Olis may have been the earliest big...
A risky strategy in the Black trial
Mark Steyn -- who has done a wonderful job blogging the Conrad Black trial -- reports that the case will go to the jury next week after the defense rested this week with Black electing not to testify. The Black's...
Chesnoff strikes again
Peter Lattman reports that my old friend, former Houstonian and current Las Vegas criminal defense lawyer extraordinaire David Chesnoff had an interesting morning this past Sunday after the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight Saturday night in Las Vegas: Las Vegas police...
The Glisan Interview
Tongues were wagging all over Houston this weekend as a result of Wall Street Journal reporter John Emshwiller's exclusive interview ($) with former Enron treasurer and Andy Fastow confidant, Ben Glisan (excerpts of the interview are here). The theme of...
A blast from the insider trading past
Remember R. Foster Winans? He was the "Heard on the Street" columnist for the Wall Street Journal from 1982 to 1984 who was convicted of insider trading on his own writing. Then-US Attorney's Rudolf Guliani's career-boosting crackdown on insider trading...
Thinking about the criminalization of business
Given that the governmental onslaught against business interests over the past several years is still a relatively recent occurrence, my sense is that we're still too close to it to be able to place it in the proper perspective. However,...
Gender stereotyping in the executive suite
As noted earlier here, I am troubled by the recent indictment of former HP chairperson Patricia Dunn. I am equally troubled by what happened to Martha Stewart (see here and here). How much of Dunn and Stewart's troubles are attributable...
Ken Lay and the Enron Myth
Former Enron chairman and CEO Ken Lay died yesterday of a heart attack and, given the stress that Mr. Lay had endured over the past five years, such a fate is certainly not surprising. However, my sense is that the...
Myths about Martha
In the original version of this Chronicle story (since revised) about Jeff Skilling's upcoming testimony in the Lay-Skilling trial and the importance of witness preparation, Austin-based jury consultant Doug Keene is quoted as making the following observation about Martha Stewart:...
The costs of Quattrone
Ellen Podgor and Peter Henning do a great job of breaking down the issues and details of the Second Circuit's decision in overturning the conviction of Frank Quattrone yesterday, so I'm attempting to step back and assess the big picture....
Quattrone conviction overturned
In a result that was anticipated by this earlier post, the ever-observant Peter Lattman reports this afternoon that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in this 61-page opinion has overturned the conviction of former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker...
What's the big deal with the Lord of Regulation?
Matthew T. Bodie is a Hofstra law professor who is guest blogging over at the Conglomerate blog and, in this post, wonders why fellow law professors such as Stephen Bainbridge and Larry Ribstein are critical of New York attorney general...
Thoughts about Martha
Martha Stewart -- who was unjustly prosecuted and convicted for allegedly misleading the government about an supposed crime that the government could not prove -- finishes the home confinement component of her sentence next week. Ellen Podgor (she of "Busted...
More thoughts on the Merrill Lynch defendants' Nigerian Barge appeal
Having tended to my "day" job at the end of last week, I wanted to pass along some further thoughts on the lively discussion that erupted between Vic Fleischer, Larry Ribstein, other commentators, and me last week in regard to...
"Busted for Yoga"
Ellen Podgor has the blog title of the day in this post on the extension of Martha Stewart's home confinement over at the White Collar Crime Law Prof blog. Money quote: "We should all feel safer knowing that Martha will...
A crushing defeat for the Enron Task Force
In yet another stunning blow in a series of setbacks to the Enron Task Force, the jury in the Enron Broadband trial returned late this afternoon and advised U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore that they had acquitted three of the...
Scrushy is acquitted
Former HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard M. Scrushy was found not guilty today by the jury in the trial over over his alleged participation in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at the huge health services company. Along with the sentencings in...
While Theodore Sihpol goes home, William Fuhs goes to jail
Continuing relentlessly to avoid addressing the real issue, this NY Times article speculates that the problem with Eliot Spitzer's recent unsuccessful prosecution of Theodore C. Sihpol, III was not that he charged Mr. Sihpol in the first place, but that...
Observations on the Tyco verdict
The morning brings several interesting obserations regarding yesterday's guilty verdict in the trial of former Tyco International, Ltd. executives, L. Dennis Kozlowski and former Tyco finance chief Mark H. Swartz. Over at Conglomerate, Professor Hurt (a former Houstonian, by the...
George Melloan on the Andersen decision
George Melloan is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal, where he is responsible for the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Asian Wall Street Journal and writing a weekly column called Global View. Mr. Melloan...
More ripples from the Anderson decision
Ellen Podgor over at the White Collar Crime Prof Blog points us to two documents that raise important issues relating to the federal government's questionable policy of attempting to regulate business through criminalization of what it deems to be questionable...
The Greenberg defense team
On the heels of this lawsuit, this New York Times article profiles the defense team of former AIG chairman and CEO, Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg -- David Boies, Robert G. Morvillo, and longtime Greenberg confidant, Kenneth J. Bialkin of Skadden,...
Lea Fastow's motion to reduce sentence is denied
The Chronicle's Mary Flood, who continues to do a fine job of covering the Enron scandal, posted this article today regarding U.S. District Judge David Hittner's denial of Lea Fastow's motion to reduce her one year sentence for misdemeanor tax...
The Martha Redemption?
In Frank Darabont's wonderful movie, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), unjustly imprisoned Andy Dufresne ends up making some pretty decent money while in prison. In an ironic twist in regard to another unjust imprisonment, this NY Times article reports that the...
Nigerian Barge case goes to the jury
Final arguments ended today in the Enron-related criminal trial of four former Merrill Lynch executives and two former mid-level Enron executives in what has become known as the Nigerian Barge trial. Earlier posts on the trial may be reviewed here,...
Checking in again on the Nigerian Barge trial
The defendants began putting on their cases this week in the Enron-related Nigerian Barge trial in Houston federal court, and already there have been some significant developments. Attorneys for defendants and former Merrill Lynch executives James Brown and Daniel Bayly...
Are you ready to rumble? -- First Enron criminal trial begins Monday
After three years from Enron Corp.'s demise into bankruptcy, dozens of indictments and plea bargains, and an unprecendented government and media campaign to demonize former Enron executives, the first criminal trial against former Enron executives will begin Monday in Houston...
Ken Lay's Washington Post op-ed
In this Washington Post op-ed, former Enron chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay makes the following disclosure and asks a very reasonable question: At my request, my lawyers have filed motions in federal court asking for an immediate and...
Is Ken Lay a criminal?
William Anderson is an economics professor at Frostburg State University and an adjunct scholar at the Mises Institute. Here is an earlier post in which Professor Anderson challenged the reasoning behind an indictment earlier this year of several former executives...
Breaking the rules of white collar defense
Robert Shapiro, the L.A.-based criminal defense attorney who put together O.J. Simpson's criminal defense team, writes this Wall Street Journal ($) op-ed today in which he takes issue with a number of tactics that Martha Stewart and her defense team...
The Chesnoffs are everywhere
On the heels of my earlier post today on Richard Chesnoff's NY Daily News op-ed, I clicked on the television to watch Martha Stewart's statement after her sentencing. Much to my surprise, my old friend David Chesnoff -- one of...
Tyco's general counsel acquitted
Mark Belnick, the former Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner who was Tyco's general counsel during the Dennis Kozlowski scandals, was acquitted yesterday of corporate fraud charges that involved an allegedly unapproved $15 million bonus and $14 million in...
Martha Stewart's sentencing
As readers of this blog know, I am not an admirer of Martha Stewart, but I believe that the recent prosecution and conviction of her is an injustice. The result of that injustice is equally disturbing. As American Enterprise Institute...
Scott Turow on Martha Stewart
In this NY Times op-ed, novelist Scott Turow takes the position that Martha Stewart got exactly what she deserved and that Martha's defenders are way off base: They have repeatedly noted that Ms. Stewart was charged only with lying after...
Internal or criminal investigations?
This NY Times article reports on the Justice Department's aggressive use of obstruction of justice laws in its investigation of accounting irregulaties at the giant software company, Computer Associates. John F. Savarese, a former federal prosecutor who also represented Martha...
Citigroup WorldCom settlement: one down, Enron to go
This NY Times article reports on the settlement of the WorldCom class action lawsuit against Citigroup. The $2.65 billion settlement is the largest ever by a bank, brokerage firm or auditor to settle an investor fraud case based on the...
Icahn profits on Martha's travails
In a world where reality is often more intriguing than fiction, this Wall Street Journal ($) article reports that Carl Icahn needs no stinkin' stock tips: By now, everyone knows how Martha Stewart was alerted by a Merrill Lynch &...
The sad case of Jamie Olis
This NY Times article reports on the sad case of a former midlevel executive of Houston-based Dynegy, the energy company that attempted to merge with Enron and then called off the deal shortly before Enron filed bankruptcy in December, 2001....
Great article on the Martha Stewart saga
One of the most important -- yet most difficult -- things for an attorney to do in private practice is to advise a valuable client not to do something that the client really wants to do. As Jeffrey Toobin brilliantly...
So, Professor Dershowitz, you want to rumble?
As noted here, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz earlier this week in a Wall Street Journal ($) op-ed slammed Martha Stewart's criminal defense team's handling of the case. Today, in a letter to the WSJ, attorneys Michael F. Armstrong, Skadden,...
Grounds for Martha's appeal
According to this Washington Post article, Martha Stewart's appeal is likely to challenge the trial court's exclusion of expert evidence that her stock trade wasn't illegal. It appears that the trial judge's the ruling excluding the expert evidence was based...
Martha's defense strategy
As noted earlier here, the decision of Martha Stewart's defense team not to have Ms. Stewart testify was a risky one. This NY Times story confirms the downside of such a strategy, reflected best by this quote from one of...
Jury finds Martha guilty
Martha Stewart was convicted today of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the sale of her shares of ImClone Systems in 2001. The jury in Manhatten Federal District Court also found Ms. Stewart's stockbroker and...
Martha's trial is winding up
Closing arguments begin today in Martha Stewart's criminal trial. What I find absolutely remarkable is that closing arguments are going to take two days in what should be a rather straightforward case. Apparently, the attorneys for the prosecution and Martha's...
Martha, this is risky
The Wall Street Journal ($) reports that Martha Stewart's legal team is seriously considering not putting Martha on the stand during her defense of the criminal case against her. The Stewart defense team apparently thinks that the prosecution's laborious month...
Did you notice that there is a revolution going on in Haiti?
Between the Super Bowl and Martha Stewart's trial, it's easy to miss that Haiti is dealing with yet another revolution. You can read about it here. I think it's safe to say that the U.S. will not invade this time,...
On Bush and War
The mercurial Victor Davis Hanson weighs in with another fine piece that makes a compelling case for the war against Iraq. As Hanson adroitly notes: The real outrage is instead that at a time of one of the most important...
Hounding Martha But Not Kenny Boy?
In an earlier post, I noted a report that the Justice Department is currently focusing on whether to indict former Enron Chairman and CEO Ken Lay. In a NY Times piece today, the timing of which is not good for...
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