Judge dismisses claims against former KPMG personnel
In a stern rebuke to federal prosecutors, a US District Judge has dismissed criminal tax-fraud claims against 13 former KPMG executives based upon the government's “intolerable” prosecutorial abuses. The Court had previously found that the government's pressuring KPMG not to pay the executives attorneys' fees violated their constitutional rights. The Court has now decided that dismissal of the charges is the appropriate remedy for such conduct. The government conceded that if the Court's constitutional analysis was correct, that dismissal was appropriate, presumably to clear the way for an appeal of the issue. The case will proceed to trial against other defendants. Prior posts on this case on this blog cover the arbitrability of attorneys' fee issues (post date September 26, 2006) and an appellate brief filed by the US District judge on that issue (post date January 22, 2007). United States v. Stein, Case No. 05-crim-0888 (USDC SD NY July 16, 2007).
