Legal Commentary

Do as I say, not as I do

By Tom Kirkendall

Andrew Weissmann is a rather odd advocate (see here and here) for limiting corporate criminal liability, don't you think?

Let's take a look back on Weissmann's business prosecution scorecard. A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court overturned Weissmann's dubious prosecution of Arthur Andersen, which was the final blow in putting that hallowed institution of American accounting out of business.

And the Fifth Circuit has largely eviscerated the notorious Nigerian Barge prosecution in which Merrill Lynch served up four executives to Weissmann to avoid an indictment of the firm.

But now, in United States v. Ionia Management, S.A., Weissmann is attempting to persuade the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to limit prosecutors from doing precisely what he did to Arthur Andersen and Merrill Lynch

In view of all this, I wonder whether any of the Second Circuit judges thought to ask Weissmann why he used his stint as a prosecutor to cause tens of thousands of job losses and enormous wealth destruction?

Or why Weissmann used criminal prosecutions to cause destruction of numerous good business careers of Arthur Andersen partners and Merrill Lynch executives where the only thing that they did wrong was to do business with what became a social pariah, Enron.

Had Weissmann been asked such questions, would he have attempted to defend his conduct at the expense of his current clients?

If so, that would not have been a winning appellate argument.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on November 22, 2008 (boomark / email).