| TREASURY & RISK MANAGEMENT |
November 2007 |
WHAT GOES AROUND
By Kate Plourd and Jennifer Lee
In his heyday, Bill Lerach was so ruthless a class-action lawyer that in Silicon Valley his name was synonymous with being sued. Now Lerach is being “Lerached” himself—to the great delight of much of the U.S. corporate community. That community will be less than thrilled with his sentence.
In September, the former Enron lead plaintiffs’ attorney pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice, acknowledging that he and others at his former law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, secretly paid plaintiffs in some of the 150 shareholder lawsuits the firm waged. Co-founder Melvyn Weiss has also been indicted in the seven-year federal investigation into a scheme that supposedly netted more than US$250 million in fees.
It is a dramatic turn for Lerach, who had formed his own San Diego–based law firm, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins. His sentence of between one and two years in prison, along with a fine and forfeiture totaling US$8 million, however, comes with a caveat: he won’t have to cooperate in the continuing investigation.
“His plea agreement is fairly unique,” says Columbia University law professor John Coffee. “I haven’t seen one [since Enron] in which the defendant is not required to cooperate with the investigation.” And it hardly compares to the multiple-decade jail terms of the executives he has sued in the past—or to the 40 years his former boss and mentor Mel Weiss might face. |
CFOs on the Move
Wee Sing Guan, finance director at Sembcorp Marine, has been blamed for a series of unauthorized currency transactions which have led to losses exceeding S$362 million (US$249 million). Acting CFO, Maureen Leong, has been appointed to replace him, pending an investigation by independent auditors ... As part of a management reshuffle, Vishakha Mulye has been made executive director of ICICI Lombard General Insurance, making way for Chanda Kochhar to become CFO of ICICI Bank … Bharti AXA Life Insurance, an India-based joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and AXA, has brought V Srinivasan in as its CFO. He comes to the post from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance … Nasdaq-listed, India-based Internet company Sify Technologies has hired Vijay Kumar as CFO ... Longstanding CFO Philip Ting Sii Tien will move from China Yuchai to Yuchai’s holding company, Hong Leong Asia. He had been the diesel engine maker’s CFO since 1994. He is replaced by Ho Tuck Chuen … At Synutra International, a China-based, Nasdaq-listed maker of dairy-based products, Lawrence Lee has resigned from the board to become CFO, replacing Jibin Zhang, who stays on as manager of operational finances … Danny Chi Tak Hon is the new CFO at China Education Resources, replacing Kathryn Witter ... John Lau takes over as CFO at Singapore and US-listed STATS ChipPAC, replacing acting CFO Tham Kah Locke … Travel services provider Travelport has hired Philip Emery as its CFO. He comes to the post from Warburg Pincus … OTCBB-listed retailer China 3C appointed Huang Weidong as its CFO, replacing Liu Jian … Amy Liu is the new CFO at Solarfun Power. She replaces Kevin Wei ... Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has hired Steve Milligan as its CFO. He comes to the post from Western Digital, where he was CFO and senior vice president. – Jennifer Lee |
