Summary: With two additional testimonies from former employees, the prosecutors for the Dewey & LeBoeuf trial were able to show how deep the fraud plot ran.
The trial of former Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP executives has reached eleven weeks. The prosecutors in the case wanted to make it clear that a fraud conspiracy existed at many levels within the firm by presenting testimony from two cooperators.
Former billing director Lourdes Rodriguez reported that she made and showed others how to make fake invoices. Former Director of Revenue Support explained that her and her staff would reverse write-offs worth millions of dollars in disbursements that they knew had no chance of being billed to clients.
They both confirmed in their testimonies that the actions taken were to misleadingly inflate the firm’s accounts receivable. They also reported that CFO Joel Sanders and director of finance Frank Canellas had directed them to do this. Canellas is Rodriguez’s fiancé.
Rodriguez and Cascino were the last of the Dewey Secret Seven, former employees that pled guilty to reduced charges in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors by also testifying in the case.
The three defendants in the case face charges of fraud, grand larceny, conspiracy, and falsifying business records.
Source: http://www.law360.com/articles/691258
Photo: cnbc.com