Accountability

The corruption trial of former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno kicked off this week, with both sides making opening statements that "presented vastly differing views" of his conduct, the New York Times reported.

New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corporation, the world’s largest maker of computer microprocessors. The suit charges that Intel violated state and federal anti-monopoly laws by engaging in a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct in order to maintain its monopoly power and prices in the market for microprocessors.

Dow Jones newswires interviewed Lou Grumet, NYSSCPA executive director, following the announcement that Bernard Madoff’s auditor David Friehling pleaded guilty.

It's official, according to several news sources: The long-time outside accountant to Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

It’s one thing for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be criticized by its own inspector general or the news media -- it’s kind of what they’re there for, after all. You live, you learn, you reorganize.

Bernard Madoff's longtime auditor, David G. Friehling, is expected to plead guilty next week in a cooperation deal.

Prosecutors reportedly wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that Friehling was expected to plead guilty at a conference on Tuesday and said that victims of Madoff's multibillion-dollar fraud are being notified.

They said Friehling will enter the plea to revised charges that accuse him of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue laws.

A securities broker from Merrick, N.Y., has been charged with securities fraud for "repeatedly creating and then distributing fake press releases to manipulate the stock prices of multiple publicly traded companies."

Executives at corporations that are taking a significant amount of taxpayer money will see their compensation slashed, the Obama administration’s pay czar announced today. The 25 highest paid employees at each of seven firms receiving government aid—AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors Co., GMAC Inc., Chrysler Group LLC and Chrysler Financial—are targeted, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Victims of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme are suing the U.K. branch of Big 4 accounting firm KPMG, alleging that auditors for the jailed billionaire’s financial operations failed to notice or ignored ample evidence of financial misconduct, making them, according to the complaint, the “primary players responsible for the fraud.”

Legislation regulating over-the-counter derivatives, the financial product largely seen as being at least partially responsible for sparking off the current financial crisis, passed the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday with a 43-27 vote that fell largely along partisan lines.