DA Vance: 3 Executives At Once-Premier Law Firm Helped ‘Cook The Books’ Amid Economic Collapse

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Three former executives conspired to hide a law firm’s snowballing financial problems from auditors and even their own partners as it headed toward collapse in the nation’s biggest law firm bankruptcy, prosecutors said Thursday.

Dewey & LeBouef LLP ex-chairman Steven Davis, former chief executive Stephen DiCarmine and former chief financial officer Joel Sanders are accused of “concocting and overseeing a massive effort to cook the books,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said as he unveiled fraud and other charges against them.

The former execs say they did nothing but strive – legally – to save a struggling firm from the vise of the 2008 financial meltdown.

“The defendants simply lied. They lied and masked the firm’s financial shortfallings. This scheme, deceived lenders, investors and others into believing the firm was in far better financially condition than it actually was,” Vance said Thursday.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/06/da-vance-3-executives-at-once-premier-law-firm-helped-cook-the-books-amid-economic-collapse/