"Three former KPMG LLP executives and a lawyer engaged in a scheme to help some of nation's wealthiest individuals avoid paying hundreds of million of dollars in taxes through tax shelters that were 'out and out frauds,' prosecutors said Wednesday. ... On Wednesday, Thomas A. Hagemann, a lawyer for [John] Larson, said in his opening statement that Mr. Larson relied on the 'good faith' judgment of more-senior executives at KPMG who signed off on the design of at least two of the transactions and that the transactions were viewed as legitimate when they were enacted. ... The government, which decided not to prosecute Sidley & Austin criminally, said the firm didn't write opinion letters for mass-marketed tax shelters prior to the merger [with Brown & Wood]", Chad Bray at the WSJ, 16 October 2008.
Another DOJ stinker. I find it inconceivable that senior KPMG persons were unaware of these transactions. Why wasn't at least Brown & Wood indicted? As it no longer exists, Sidley as sucessor in interest should have been. The four persons on trial here look like designated scapegoats. I hope Mike Garcia has the misfortune to draw a really smart jury and these four nobodys are acquitted when the jurors wonder why weren't their superiors charged too? If their superiors weren't even charged, what can these nobodys be guilty of?
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