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RAIN 0527 Weekend Update: LEGAL (20)



AP 5/16/02
Burned Documents Cited in Tire Trial
Thu May 16, 6:57 PM ET
By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer
A former Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. employee told a judge Thursday she burned documents — which people suing the company say could concern manufacturing defects — after a superior suggested they be gotten rid of.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020516/ap_on_bi_ge/cooper_tire_trial_2


Reuters 5/16/02
Cooper Employee Burned Company Papers
By Casey Munck
LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) - An employee of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. testified on Thursday she burned documents about the company's tires in a case in which two surviving brothers of a car crash that killed their parents and two siblings seek sanctions against the tire maker for allegedly destroying evidence.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020516/bs_nm/autos_cooper_trial_dc_1


AP 5/22/02
Judge Rules Against Cooper Tire
LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Cooper Tire knew or should have known that 1992 documents would become material in litigation against the firm and the material should have been preserved, U.S. District Court Judge George Howard Jr. said Wednesday.
The judge said sanctions are justified, but that he would not grant a request to preclude the testimony of Cooper's expert witness about the cause for the failure of specific tires mentioned in the lawsuit.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020523/ap_on_bi_ge/cooper_tire_trial_1


Reuters 5/22/02
Court Sanctions Cooper Tires
By Steve Barnes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) - A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday said two brothers suing Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in a wrongful death and personal injury case could introduce evidence that the company had destroyed potentially damaging documents.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020522/bs_nm/autos_cooper_trial_dc_1


CNBC 5/23/02
Cooper Tire: Court Ruling Shows Plaintiffs' Lawyers Allegations Were False
FINDLAY, Ohio, May 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Company CTB said
Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge George Howard Jr. in Little Rock merely
reflects a legal dispute over discovery of documents, which are not relevant to the merits of the personal injury lawsuit about to begin in Arkansas.
"The personal injury lawyers had a strategy. They were involved in leaking bad information to the media about Cooper Tire. Once the true facts were explained to the Judge, under oath, the Judge ruled that the personal injury lawyers were wrong about Cooper's intentions," said Cooper's chairman, president and chief executive officer, Tom Dattilo. "We will be able to present our case to the jury and will explain that any documents that were discarded under our document retention policy had nothing to do with this unfortunate and tragic accident."
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/category/industryarticle.asp?feed=PR&Date=20020523&ID=1662659


Reuters 5/24/02
Cooper Tire Settles Tread-Separation Suit
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (CTB) has settled a lawsuit alleging one of its tires was defective and caused a 1998 accident that killed four people and seriously injured two others.
The settlement, reached late Thursday in Little Rock, Arkansas, came one day after a U.S. District Court judge sanctioned the tiremaker for destroying potentially damaging
documents.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/breaking/break...wsarticle.asp?feed=OBR&Date=20020524&ID=1666512


Chicago Tribune 5/21/02
Andersen e-mails, video depict shredding as key
Prosecutors sketch sequence of events
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0205210263may21.story?coll=chi%2Dbusiness%2Dhed


New York Times 5/21/02
Prosecutors Use Notes to Bolster
Case Against Andersen
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
HOUSTON, May 20 — Federal prosecutors used a series of e-mail messages and a lawyer's notes today to bolster their case that employees at Arthur Andersen shredded documents related to Enron out of fear of a government investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/21/business/21AUDI.html?pagewanted=print&position=top


AP 5/21/02
Andersen partner says in video that
destroying documents before litigation is 'great'
By KRISTEN HAYS, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON - Jurors in Arthur Andersen LLP's obstruction trial watched a video Monday in which audit team managers were told destroying documents before litigation is filed is "great" because "whatever might have been of interest to anybody is gone and irretrievable."
Michael Odom, a practice manager and partner in Andersen's Houston office, made the remarks Oct. 10 while instructing audit team managers to follow the Chicago-based firm's document retention policy, which calls for the destruction of unneeded material.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020521/ap_wo_en_ge/us_andersen_trial_3


Dow Jones Newswire 5/22/02
Andersen Investigator Told Firm Duncan Needed Guidance
By: Roy R. Reynolds
Dow Jones Newswires
HOUSTON -- A forensic accountant for Arthur Andersen LLP relayed to his superiors at the firm that David Duncan -- the lead of Andersen's Enron Corp. ( ENRNQ) engagement team -- needed guidance on retaining documents related to Enron audits on Oct. 31 , nine days before the shredding of documents ended.
David Stulb, the leader of Andersen's Business Fraud and Investigation Group and a partner in the firm, witnessed Mr. Duncan ripping off the cover sheet off an e-mail sent by fellow Andersen partner James Hecker because it read "smoking guns you can't extinguish."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dow...rsen_investigator_told_firm_duncan_needed_guidance


Los Angeles Times 5/22/02
Accountant Recounts Shredding Instructions
Courts: Document-retention policy is at the center of Andersen's trial on an obstruction of justice charge for destroying Enron-related papers.
http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D000035976may22


Reuters 5/22/02
Andersen Compares Document Policy with FBI's
By C. Bryson Hull
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Accounting firm Andersen, on trial for obstruction of justice in the collapse of Enron Corp., said on Wednesday its recordkeeping policy was no more harmful or suspicious than the FBI (news - web sites)'s own rules on maintaining documents.
Andersen lawyer Rusty Hardin contrasted the FBI's famously bureaucratic record-keeping doctrine with Andersen's document retention policy, which the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) argues is a veiled mandate to illegally destroy evidence.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020522/ts_nm/financial_andersen_trial_dc_13



Chicago Tribune 5/23/02
Adviser cautioned Duncan on shredding
By E. A. Torriero
HOUSTON -- With a federal probe under way last fall into failing Enron Corp., lead Andersen auditor David Duncan discussed destroying a potentially damaging document relating to the firm's mishandling of Enron's audit, a top Andersen security supervisor
testified Wednesday.


CNNMoney 5/23/02
Duncan was naive
Accounting firm sent out 18-20 trunks to be shredded.
Texas moves to revoke Andersen license.
http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/23/news/andersen/index.htm


AP 5/23/02
Duncan Needed Help in Enron Case
By KRISTEN HAYS, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP) - The head of Arthur Andersen LLP's forensic investigative unit said he had to stop the firm's former top auditor on the Enron account from destroying a potentially damaging document in late October.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020523/ap_on_bi_ge/andersen_trial_13


USA Today 5/22/02
Andersen expert says he flagged shredding
By Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
HOUSTON — The government drew more blood Wednesday in its obstruction of justice trial against Arthur Andersen when the firm's own forensic expert testified that he stopped David Duncan from destroying an internal memo describing complaints about Enron's accounting as "smoking guns."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/energy/enron/2002-05-23-andersen-trial.htm



Houston Chronicle 5/23/02
Witness says Duncan tried to toss key page
By TOM FOWLER
An Arthur Andersen fraud examiner said he had to stop former lead Enron auditor David Duncan last fall from throwing out a memo Duncan called "another smoking gun," according to testimony Wednesday in the criminal trial of the accounting firm.
David Stulb, head of Andersen's Business Fraud Investigative Services group, said
the incident happened on Oct. 31 as he and Duncan reviewed a report written by law
firm Vinson & Elkins about questions raised by an Enron whistleblower about the
company's accounting.
"As he pulled it out, he said something to the effect, `Another smoking gun. We don't
need this,' and that he was going to remove the top page," Stulb said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/business/1422838



Chicago Tribune 5/24/02
Massive volume of shredding detailed
Houston manager says year's worth collected in 3 days
By E.A. Torriero
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HOUSTON -- For three hectic days in late October, Andersen auditors in the offices of financially troubled Enron Corp. collected roughly a ton of paperwork and shipped it off in 18 to 20 seaweed green locker trunks for shredding at the accounting firm's
downtown headquarters a few blocks away.
At one point the auditors ran out of trunks, but Andersen record keepers were so
overwhelmed that they refused to empty the contents of the containers. Their
supervisor, Sharon Thibaut, plucked papers out of the trunks herself so they
could be shuttled back to Enron to be filled with more documents, she testified
Thursday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0205240217may24.story?coll=chi%2Dbusiness%2Dhed



New York Times 5/24/02
A Jewish Family's Stolen Legacy
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Barbara Principe remembers little of her early childhood in Nazi Germany. After
her parents fled with her in 1939, traveling through Britain and Cuba to a
chicken farm in South Jersey, they spoke only fleetingly of her Jewish family's old life in an opulent home outside Berlin.
It was not until two years ago, at the age of 67, that she discovered that her family
once controlled a profitable department-store empire in the heart of Berlin. She also
discovered that the Nazis had forced the family to give up everything they owned.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/0.../24NAZI.html?pagewanted=print&position=top


Computer User 5/24/02
Subpoenaed Enron e-mail causes e-headaches
By Brian Krebs and Robert MacMillan, Washtech.
Bush White House staffers may be about to learn a crucial lesson from President Clinton's playbook - if there's something you want to hide, don't spill the details in e-mail.
Recent civil and criminal investigations show that e-mail is a different kind of smoking gun, one that Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) will use to his advantage in his investigation of bankrupt energy company Enron Corp.
http://computeruser.com/news/02/05/24/news8.html




Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
pakurilecz@aol.com
Richmond, Va