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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (4448)	9/15/2002 5:12:49 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

BILL LERACH: SCOURGE OF THE CORPORATE CRIMINAL cfo.com I Told You So To controversial securities litigator Bill Lerach, the current wave of corporate fraud scandals was both inevitable and preventable. Lori Calabro, CFO Magazine September 01, 2002 CFO.com and the AICPA have joined forces to present the SEC Quarterly Review Webcast Series. The Series focuses on the most important issues facing CFOs and finance executives each quarter, including the latest regulatory and accounting developments at the SEC. Sign up for the entire series and receive a 20% discount. Recommended 2 CPE credits per webcast, 8 in total. Starts September 19. To controversial securities litigator Bill Lerach, the current wave of corporate fraud scandals was both inevitable and preventable. Seven years ago, Congress overrode President Bill Clinton's veto and passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA). The legislation was hailed as a victory for corporations over lawyers who filed what CEOs regarded as frivolous shareholder lawsuits, or "strike suits," as some called them. In particular, the act was viewed by many executives as a big thumb in the eye of one notoriously litigious attorney: William S. Lerach. But the act only briefly stemmed the tide of shareholder litigation. And it hardly put a dent in the caseload of Lerach, a senior partner at the law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach and the poster boy for securities fraud actions. (In Silicon Valley, to be "Lerached" is slang for being sued.) Today, the PSLRA is being reviled as a catalyst of the accounting scandals plaguing Corporate America, while shareholder complaints resulting from those scandals are stacking up on Bill Lerach's cluttered desk. Talk about irony. Of the 303 noninitial public offering allocation class-action securities suits settled in the United States between 1996 and 2001, more than half were brought by Lerach and his colleagues, according to statistics compiled by Cornerstone Research. And this year, he's leading the plaintiffs' charge in the two biggest corporate scandals. Last February, Lerach was named lead attorney in the class-action case against Enron, a case he calls the "professional challenge of a lifetime." And in March, a shareholder case that he insists documented many of the alleged abuses at WorldCom well before the company admitted to more than $7 billion in accounting irregularities was dismissed by a federal district court judge in Mississippi. Against both companies, Lerach, who has brought some 600 class-action cases to date, is now casting a wide net of responsibility. Representing the University of California Board of Regents in the $25 billion Enron suit, he has made headlines by suing nine investment banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup, as well as the company's legal counsels and what's left of Arthur Andersen. Lerach is also pursuing many of the same banks in state courts on behalf of three California pension funds, including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, for the banks' involvement in a May 2001 bond offering for WorldCom. <Continues..............>

To: Mephisto who wrote (4448)	9/18/2002 9:22:53 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 5185

Consumer prices rise 0.3 percent in August, largest gain in four months Wed Sep 18, 9:16 AM ET story.news.yahoo.com By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Consumer inflation rose 0.3 percent in August, the largest advance in four months, lifted by higher prices for energy products, clothing and tobacco. The advance in the Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation gauge, followed a tiny 0.1 percent rise in July, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Excluding energy and food prices, which tend to bounce around a lot from month to month, the "core" rate of inflation also rose by 0.3 percent in August, up from a 0.2 percent increase in the previous month. The latest readings on inflation were slightly worse than the 0.2 percent rise that many analysts were predicting for both overall inflation and the core inflation rate. The Federal Reserve, trying to restore the economy back to full health after falling into recession last year, at its last meeting said that economic weakness is a bigger risk for the economy than inflation. In making that determination, Fed policy-makers held the door open to future interest rate reductions if economic conditions worsen. So far this year, the Fed has decided to hold short-term rates at four-decade lows. Many analysts predict the Fed will do so again at its next meeting on Sept. 24. The 0.3 percent rise in overall consumer prices in August was the largest increase since April, when they rose by 0.5 percent. Energy prices last month jumped by 0.6 percent, following a 0.4 percent increase in July. Crude oil recently has been bumping up against dlrs 30 per barrel - as tensions between the United States and Iraq heightened worries about possible supply disruptions. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries opens a meeting Thursday to discuss production levels. OPEC ministers were largely lined up Wednesday against an oil production increase being pushed by consumers in the West, but the most important player, Saudi Arabia, would not say publicly which way it will go. The CPI report showed that fuel oil prices shot up 2.1 percent in August. Electricity costs went up by 0.6 percent and gasoline prices rose 0.5 percent. Natural gas prices went down by 0.3 percent. For the first eight months of this year, overall consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.7 percent, compared with a 1.6 percent increase for all of 2001. A big factor behind this advance is rising energy prices. Last year, energy prices fell 13 percent. So far this year, they are rising at a rate of 13.5 percent. Another factor in the rise in consumer inflation in August was a strong 1.1 percent increase in clothing costs. But that reflected the introduction of more expensive fall and winter merchandise. For the 12 months ending in August, apparel prices have fallen by 1.7 percent. Also contributing August's advance was a 2.4 percent increase in prices for tobacco and other smoking products. Those prices tend to jump around a lot each month. Food prices dipped by 0.1 percent in August, an improvement from July's 0.2 percent increase. And, prices for medical care rose by a modest 0.2 percent in August, compared with a sharp 0.7 percent advance the month before. Still, for the 12 months ending August, medical care costs have gone up a sizable 4.7 percent. Email Story