Steven Singer Quoted In Wall Street Journal's Coverage Of KPMG Conduct In Fraud Suit
03/15/04
The Wall Street Journal reported on a recent decision of a federal appeals court requiring KPMG’s Belgian affiliate to withdraw a legal action it instituted in Belgium in an attempt to avoid producing documents to U.S. plaintiffs. KPMG faced charges of securities fraud for its auditing work of former client, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (“L&H”). In November 2003, a federal magistrate ordered KPMG-Belgium to turn over its audit records to the plaintiffs by Dec. 1. Rather than comply with this court order, KPMG-Belgium, on Thanksgiving Day, filed a Writ with a Brussels court seeking to fine the plaintiffs 1 million euros ($1.2 million) should they try to enforce the order. The move drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, who said she had "never seen anything like it."In December, Judge Saris issued an injunction ordering KPMG-Belgium to drop its court proceedings in Brussels, or risk default judgement in the suit by U.S. investors, thus forfeiting its right to contest the plaintiffs' fraud allegations. KPMG instead appealed Judge Saris’s order. The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the latest development - an unanimous upholding of Judge Saris's ruling by the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals - featured BLB&G's Steven Singer. Asked about KPMG’s refusal to produce documents and its attempt to evade the court’s discovery order, Singer said: "They [KPMG] don't want to turn the documents over because the information in there is devastating to them."
In the litigation arising out of the massive fraud at L&H, BLB&G represented Stonington Partners, Inc., which sold its majority share in Dictaphone Corporation to L&H, in exchange for over $450 million of L&H stock in 2000.
Related Attorney: Steven B. Singer
Download: First Circuit's Ruling (PDF, 87.77 K)
