Bush's top corporate-crime fighter paid $400 million to settle fraud charges (abrev title)

Associated Press / SFGate

[Uncle Bill]

Forbes.com

[sarcasm]

Maybe we can put someone from the Taliban in charge of the war on terror!! (sarcasm, of course)

Why do posters continue to libel my good name? My attorney will be contacting you.

[grania]

lol...it's going to be a much-used name today!

[sarcasm]

If that's the case, I hereby demand reparations.

[Uncle Bill]

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the subject of this thread, is in charge of the Enron investigation. Now he's in charge of them all. But, hey, that's not all, He coordinates a major portion of our nation's fight against terror. But he can sleep good. He's got Mueller on the swat team with him. He can give him terror advice while discussing old BCCI memories.

"We're not looking for individuals of any particular religion or from any particular country."
FBI Director Robert Mueller - SOURCE.

[steve50]

I've been reading a lot of market boards lately. Some started talking impeachment a month or so ago. Lately they've dropped the sarcasm tags that usually went with it. Starting to look like this might go down as the most corrupt Republican administration in history. Bush is making Nixon look good by comparison.
If all they are going to do is make noise before the mid terms he can kiss the House and Senate goodbye

[Uncle Bill]

"If that's the case, I hereby demand reparations."

LOL.

[Uncle Bill]

Bttt

[rdavis84]

It's finally starting to get into the pocketbooks of enough people, and even the pragmatists are getting disgusted too. The hot money tip right now Might be to buy Pitchforks low, sell high in a few weeks. :-)

[Uncle Bill]

"The hot money tip right now Might be to buy Pitchforks"

There's nothing like the sound of a stuck pig.

[Donald Stone]

Why don't you check out some of Larry Thompson's handi-work
while he was at Providian !!!!!!!!!


http://badbusinessbureau.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q2=&q3=&q4=&q5=Providian&q6=&q7=&submit2=Search%21

[Uncle Bill]

BTTT!!

[Uncle Bill]

Larry D. Thompson - Bush Aide Led Co. Accused of Fraud

Larry D. Thompson - U.S. Corporate Watchdog Served At Troubled Firm

• Larry D. Thompson, deputy attorney general and head of a new multi-agency corporate-crime task force, was a Providian Financial Corp. board member and chairman of its audit and compliance committee from June 1997 until his unanimous confirmation by the Senate on May 10, 2001.

• Thompson sold all his stock -- worth nearly $5 million -- in Providian after his confirmation to comply with ethics rules. The sale came a few months before Providian began to disclose looming problems with defaults in its credit card portfolio, problems that led to a collapse of its stock price and the layoffs of thousands of employees.

• Thompson did not return calls for comment.

• Thompson's service on the Providian board coincided with the time regulators said Providian engaged in fraudulent conduct.

• Thompson held 89,651 shares, including unexercised options, on March 12, 2001. On the day he took office, May 10, that stock had a market value of more than $4.7 million.

• Insider trading has become an issue in shareholder and employee lawsuits against Providian.

• In July 2001 -- after Thompson left the board -- former Providian chief executive Shailesh J. Mehta sold 75,000 shares for $3.7 million. David R. Alvarez, former president of Providian's integrated-card unit, exercised his stock options in the summer and fall of 2001 and realized a $12.2 million profit. Several other offices and directors sold stock that summer, as well. Providian's stock price began to plunge -- it hit a 52-week high of $59.85 in July -- after a Sept. 4, 2001, announcement that Providian's third-quarter earnings would be lower than expected. The stock eventually hit a low of $2 a share in November and closed trading yesterday at $4.65.

• Thompson, a former U.S. attorney in Georgia and partner and defense lawyer at the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding, was not questioned about his role at Providian during his public confirmation hearing.

• Providian agreed to a $300 million settlement in June 2000 with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The settlement is "by far" the largest ever reached by the bank regulator.

• Six months after the Comptroller of the Currency settlement, the company paid $105 million to settle the same allegation in a class-action suit filed on behalf of its customers.

• In March 2002, Providian paid $38 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders in 1999.

• Providian officers and directors, including Thompson, are defendants in a current class action lawsuit brought by more than 10,000 Providian employees.

---

LOL! It's another one of those brilliant moves by Bush. It's a strategy only they can comprehend.

[Donald Stone]

LOL! It's another one of those brilliant moves by Bush. It's a strategy only they can comprehend.

This must be Bush's idea of April Fool's Day in July!!!!!

Or maybe Clinton set the standard for in your face public corruption and Bush is trying to surpass Clinton's standard for public corruption in high places.

The United States is much like a ship adrift at sea without a captain.

[Donald Stone]

enron/bush collusion in sticking it to californian energy consumers by Dan Brown, repost • Monday January 21, 2002 at 08:13 PM

Enron execs met with govt. immediately before Bush admin said NO to California's request for assistance (picture dubya's smirky grin, the one he gets when he says the word "evil")

Dan Brown: 'It's Time to Appoint a Special Prosecutor' Date: Sunday, January 13 @ 09:14:12 EST

By Dan Brown, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Enron executives have disclosed that they met with the Bush administration just one day before the administration determined not to assist California in its Enron-created energy crisis, by not imposing price caps and allowing Enron to further gouge Californian energy consumers, potentially bankrupting California energy providers and endangering the stability of the government of California.

The White House has disclosed that Enron executives met with at least two Cabinet-level Bush administration officials prior to the Enron collapse and discussed the precarious Enron financial situation. These Bush administration officials have a fiduciary duty to oversee U.S. pension accounts, yet those officials determined to "do nothing."

The White House has further disclosed that President Bush learned of Enron's impending collapse "last fall," in the words of White House spokesman Ari Fleischer -- yet Bush, who now says through spokesmen that he wants to make sure that this "doesn't happen again" to the pension accounts of innocent victims, did nothing to see that it didn't happen the first time.

We already know that more than 29 Bush administration officials are former Enron executives or shareholders. We know that Ken Lay and Enron bankrolled Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. We know too that Enron was the second largest contributor to John Ashcroft's Senate campaign as well; more than $61,000 came from Enron and Lay.

Further, we now know that Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, to whom the investigation has fallen upon Attorney General Ashcroft's recusal, also has ties to Enron, which makes it impossible for Thompson to lead an investigation of this magnitude. Thompson worked for the law firm of King and Spalding from 1977 to 1982, served as a U.S. Attorney under the Reagan administration, and returned to King and Spalding as a partner in 1986. He stayed at the firm until his appointment as deputy attorney general in 2001.

King and Spalding has represented subsidiaries of Enron, including Enron Global LNG, Enron Global Markets and Enron Energy Services. As a former law partner, Larry Thompson profited from the firm's work for Enron. Even if he did not work directly on Enron matters -- information that is not publicly available -- Thompson cannot avoid the "appearance of impropriety," which is fatal for such an important investigation.

The Enron story is more important than whether Afghan prisoners were drugged on the way to Cuba. It's more important than Donald Rumsfeld's failure to secure the capture of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan -- or whether Yasser Arafat has control over Hamas.

The Enron story is about the spectacular failure of the deregulation nightmare unleashed on us by President Ronald Reagan and resurrected by George W. Bush. Enron was a product of deregulated Texas under then-Gov. Bush.

The Enron story is about control of the government of the United States by the highest bidder. Ken Lay and Enron built Bush.

With unlimited access, Lay and Enron engineered the exit of an unfavorable Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair and appointment of a sympathetic "watchdog" over his own industry. With unlimited access, Lay and Enron kept the U.S. government from doing what it was supposed to do to assist California in its energy crisis, caused, ironically, by Enron. With unlimited access, Lay and Enron kept the government of the United States from protecting the pension accounts of tens of thousands of Enron employees, while highly paid executives made off with billions of dollars.

Bush is often said to run the government like a "business."

Unfortunately, to see the model upon which that business is based, we need only look as far as Enron.

Enron sacrificed the best interests of all the energy consumers in California to corporate greed. It leveraged deregulation to thrive as an unneeded middleman in the energy trade. It tossed out tens of thousands of employees, broke, while its executives made billions of dollars.

And it kept its puppet government of Bush apprised every step of the way.

Every time Bush had to decide whether to act in the best interests of the nation or the best interests of Enron, Bush chose Enron. Every time Bush faced a decision to act on or report information given to him by Enron that affected the public trust he has undertaken, Bush chose to keep quiet.

Bush and his administration have been complicit in every action that Enron has taken to thrive at the expense of the United States of America.

It's time to appoint a special prosecutor and hold Bush accountable.

It's what the shareholders would want. -- Dan Brown, St. Paul. Data analyst. www.truthout.com/01.14B.Appoint.SP.htm add your comments

[Donald Stone]

FYI.

This article by Thompson is a good read:

How to Keep the Other Shoe from Dropping:The Interrelationship of Civil RICO and Criminal Proceedings.
(I have a paper copy but not digital)

I'm wondering if Thompson would seek federal criminal indictments against individuals and law firms with strong ties to the Republican National Party.


Larry D. Thompson

King & Spalding

Professional Experience
Joined King & Spalding in 1977 and practiced in the Antitrust and Litigation Departments until 1982.

From 1982-86, served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

As United States Attorney, directed the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and served on the Attorney General’s Economic Crime Council.

After returning to King & Spalding in 1986 as a partner, he resumed his practice in civil and criminal litigation.

Primary Practice Areas

Antitrust, Healthcare, Special Matters & Government Investigations.

Current practice involves white collar criminal defense matters, complex civil litigation, internal corporate investigations and False Claims Act cases.

Successfully represented corporations and individuals in numerous federal grand jury investigations across the U.S., including Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston,Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa, Alexandria, Virginia,Washington, D.C., Charleston, South Carolina and Jackson, Mississippi.

An experienced litigator,successfully tried and argued numerous civil fraud and criminal matters, including civil RICO trial involving insurance company, a criminal false statements and conspiracy trial involving a surety company, criminal trial of bribery allegations under the Taft-Hartley Act, criminal appeal involving tax and Hobbs Act charges and civil appeal involving business fraud.

Represented Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 before the U.S. Senate. In July 1995, named Independent Counsel for the
Department of Housing and Urban Development investigation by the Special Panel of U.S. Circuit Court Judges appointed by the Supreme Court.

Selected Honors, Awards, Publications and/or Professional and Civic Associations

Member, Committee on Lawyers’ Qualifications and Conduct of the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. Recipient of the Outstanding Litigator Award by the Atlanta Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Member, Board of Trustees,
Culver-Stockton College.

Representative Publications: "How to Keep The Other Shoe From Dropping: The Interrelationship of Civil RICO and Criminal Proceedings", Georgia State Bar
Journal, Summer 1994; "Structuring Informal Immunity: Problems of Scope and Enforcement",
Criminal Justice, Spring 1993; "Jury Instructions in Criminal Antitrust Cases", American Bar
Association, 1982

Education
B.A., Culver-Stockton College, 1967, cum laude; M.A., Michigan State University, 1974); J.D.,
University of Michigan, 1974

[Fred Mertz]

The hot money tip right now Might be to buy Pitchforks low, sell high in a few weeks. :-)

Sounds like sound advice. Should I go for the short or long model?

[rdavis84]

"Starting to look like this might go down as the most corrupt Republican administration in history. Bush is making Nixon look good by comparison."

Unfortunately it'll be followed very shortly by an even MORE corrupt Democrat Crime Wave. IF somebody doesn't declare an end to elections (temporarily of course) because there's a WAR ON. ;-)

[dogbyte12]

The news critters in Washington wonder why we have such low voter turn out. I genuinely believe that Presidents have a problem finding non ethically challenged people to fill positions.

Ethical people often don't rise to the very top, and when they do, why would they want to enter the cesspool known as Washington D.C.? So we get nominees like this no matter if it is a democrat or republican in charge.

Shakespeare had it right about lawyers 500 years ago. Lawyer/businessman= ethics problems. It just does.

[rdavis84]

"Should I go for the short or long model?"

The short models are more for the Spec. Forces type guys, the long models for more of the Sniper types. I'm going long. :-)