Nikolai Gorokhov, who represents family of Sergei Magnitsky, in intensive care after falling from apartment block

A Russian lawyer who represents the family of Sergei Magnitsky is in intensive care after falling from the fourth floor of his apartment building near Moscow, according to unconfirmed reports.

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta suggested Nikolai Gorokhov had fallen after a winch snapped as he tried to lift a bath to a fourth-floor apartment, though details of the incident remained murky.  

Magnitsky uncovered a massive fraud that implicated government officials, but was arrested in 2008 and died in prison in 2009, amid allegations he had been tortured and medical care had been withheld. Russia later put him on trial posthumously for tax evasion.

Gorokhov, 53, has represented the Magnitsky family since 2011, and was due in court on Wednesday as part of a case brought by Magnitsky’s mother against some of those allegedly involved in the fraud he uncovered.

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Bellevue investment adviser pleads guilty to fraud

A Bellevue investment adviser has pleaded guilty to fraud and making false statements after investigators said he kept some of his clients' money as his own.

Seattle U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes says 44-year-old Chris Young Yoo promised to invest the money in funds he managed, but instead used it to pay his own living and business expenses. It cost 17 clients $3.7 million. He entered his plea Monday in U.S. District Court.

Yoo ran Summit Asset Strategies from 2006 to 2015. Prosecutors said that in 2015, Yoo reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which he agreed to pay restitution to some clients. But prosecutors say he continued to solicit investments that he used for his own purposes.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to recommend that Yoo face a little more than 6½ years in prison when he's sentenced in June. read more »

Judge rules whistleblower suit against Georgia Lottery can go forward

A whistleblower lawsuit claiming a Georgia Lottery executive was fired after refusing to support inflated sales projections should go to trial, a Fulton County Superior Court judge decided this week.

Kenneth Knight, former vice president for financial management at the Georgia Lottery, argued that he was pressured by Lottery President Debbie Alford and his boss to present the lottery board with flawed sales projections in April 2014. Knight says in the lawsuit that he told his boss about problems with the numbers, but that they were presented to the board anyway. read more »

Exxon Can’t Find Up to a Year of Tillerson’s ‘Wayne Tracker’ Emails

Exxon Mobil Corp. may have lost as much as a year’s worth of emails that former Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson used to discuss climate change risks and other issues under the alias ’Wayne Tracker’, a lawyer for New York state told a judge.

Tillerson, now U.S. secretary of state, used the pseudonym account for sending sensitive messages to company board members, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating whether the Irving, Texas-based company misled investors for years about the possible impact of the Earth’s warming on its business. read more »

 

 

Trump withdraws reappointment nomination of popular whistleblower advocate

Truth tellers are especially important and potentially vulnerable in an administration afflicted with serial mendacity.

An important refuge from management retaliation for federal truth tellers — a.k.a. whistleblowers — is the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a small, understaffed independent agency that regularly challenges the biggest dudes on the block.

But now, whistleblowers and their advocates are worried that the office’s vigilance under Carolyn Lerner could be endangered by President Trump’s notice to the Senate “withdrawing from further Senate consideration” her reappointment nomination. read more »

Philadelphia Prosecutor Indicted on Corruption Charges

R. Seth Williams, the embattled district attorney for Philadelphia, was indicted Tuesday on bribery and fraud charges, a remarkable turn for the city’s top prosecutor, who was considered a rising Democratic star before he became embroiled in scandal and ethics violations.

A 50-page, 23-count indictment accused Mr. Williams of accepting lavish gifts — including trips to a Dominican resort, Burberry accessories, checks for thousands of dollars and a custom sofa worth $3,212 — from businessmen for whom he was willing to do favors. The indictment also accused Mr. Williams of diverting money from a relative’s pension and Social Security for his personal use. read more »

Fake $3.6 Trillion Deal Is Easy to Sneak Past the SEC

A few hours after the New York market close on Feb. 1, an obscure Chicago artist by the name of Antonio Lee told the world he had become the world’s richest man.

The 32-year-old painter said Google’s parent, Alphabet Inc., had bought his art company in exchange for a chunk of stock that made him wealthier than Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett and Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos -- combined.

Of course, none of it was true. Yet, on that day, Lee managed to issue his fabricated report in the most authoritative of places: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Edgar database -- the foundation of hundreds of billions of dollars in financial transactions each day.

For more than three decades, the SEC has accepted online submissions of regulatory filings -- basically, no questions asked. As many as 800,000 forms are filed each year, or about 3,000 per weekday. But, in a little known vulnerability at the heart of American capitalism, the government doesn’t vet them, and rarely even takes down those known to be shams.

“The SEC can’t stop them,” said Lawrence West, a former SEC associate enforcement director. “They can only punish the filer afterward and remove the filing from the system. So, caveat lector -- let the reader beware.” read more »