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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (55561)	4/24/2002 10:18:43 AM
From: Smart_Money	Respond to of 99280

May the Shredding Begin.... nypost.com Look out Wall Street, a fresh threat is on its way from the Justice Department's resident pit bull, Michael Chertoff. If Wall Street analysts thought things were tough with New York's attorney general Eliot Spitzer on their case, now the lawman who brought Arthur Andersen to its knees is looking to shake them up further. Chertoff, assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department's criminal division, told Bloomberg news that criminal charges are possible if investigators find that research analysts weren't honest with their ratings for the sake of investment banking deals. "Justice has not launched a probe into analysts' conflicts of interest per se, but financial reporting, including the work of financial analysts, is on the radar screen," said Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra. Chertoff, who got Andersen indicted on a criminal count of obstruction of justice, will face the firm in court May 6. He also got head Andersen auditor for Enron David Duncan to plead guilty to a criminal charge of obstruction of justice - thus dashing hopes Andersen had of maintaining a non-guilty defense. Because Chertoff is investigating Andersen and Enron, regulators said the work for the Justice Department is probably being done by the U.S. Attorney's office in New York under new U.S. Attorney James Comey. "This is mushrooming," said John Coffee, securities law professor at Columbia University's law school. New York Attorney General Spitzer "has come up with some smoking guns . . . and I don't think they'll find Merrill Lynch the only one with problems." Earlier this month, Spitzer aired e-mails between Merrill Lynch analysts and management revealing their private disdain for stocks, while publicly praising them. "Right now no one loves analysts. They are as unloved as accountants," Coffee added.