Miers does DeLay Impressions

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Mon, 3 Oct 2005 18:13:07 EDT

Miers does DeLay Impressions

 

 

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/miers-led-law-firm-repeat_b_8277.html

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Miers Headed Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding

Investors

 

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a

corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers

did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate

law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class

Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the

firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that

" it aided a client in defrauding investors. "

 

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling,

considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of

America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented

the head of a " foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly

a Ponzi scheme. " The law firm admitted that it " knew in March 1998

that $8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to

investors " but didn't tell regulators.

 

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. The Austin

American-Statesman reported in 2001 that Miers' law firm was forced

to pay another $8 million for a similar scheme to defraud investors.

The suit, which dealt with actions the firm took under Miers in the

late 1990s, was again quite troubling. As the 9/20/00 Texas Lawyer

reported, Miers' firm helped a now-convicted con man " defraud

investors and allowed the firm's [bank] account to be used as a

'conduit.' " The suit said " money from investors that went into the

firm's trust account was deposited into [the con man's] bank accounts

and was used to pay for his 'expensive toys.' "

 

If you think Miers wasn't involved in any of this - think again.

Miers wasn't just any old lawyer at the firm. She was the Managing

Partner - the big cheese. True, she could claim she had no idea this

was going on. But that would be as laughable/pathetic/transparent as

the Enron executives who made the same ones after they ripped off

investors.

 

I wrote earlier today that Democrats must focus on the fact that

Miers' defining career experience up until her nomination was being a

Bush crony. These new details about her career only enhance that case,

in that it shows she is just like the other corrupt corporate cronies

like Enron's Ken ( " Kenny Boy " ) Lay that Bush has surrounded himself

with over the years. There is no room on the Supreme Court for people

like Miers who are clearly entirely compromised by partisan/corporate

loyalties - loyalties that might make her an attractive candidate to

the a corrupt elitists who run today's Republican Party, but a danger

to the interests of ordinary Americans.

 

Sources: Miers headed law firm fined for defrauding investors:

http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/003439.shtml

{http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/003439.shtml}

Details of

first case that Miers' law firm was fined for:

http://bankrupt.com/CAR_Public/000501.MBX

{http://bankrupt.com/CAR_Public/000501.MBX} Earlier post on Dems'

strategy in facing Miers' nomination:

http://bankrupt.com/CAR_Public/000501.MBX

{http://bankrupt.com/CAR_Public/000501.MBX}