Eliot Spitzer's moment of truth.IT'S 2006 and New York State Attorney General The New York State Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of New York. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government of New York. Eliot Spitzer has a problem. He has filed charges against Richard Grasso for accepting too much compensation from the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. and against Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg for allegedly manipulating the value of AIG shares. But Spitzer hasn't brought either case to trial. Why not? Both are "hardened targets," in thermonuclear speak, with tens of millions of dollars to defend themselves. And simply on the merits on the merits adj. referring to a judgment, decision or ruling of a court based upon the facts presented in evidence and the law applied to that evidence. A judge decides a case "on the merits" when he/she bases the decision on the fundamental issues and considers of the cases, it's not clear that Spitzer can win either one. After all, Grasso's compensation was approved by a board of directors. Meanwhile, Greenberg's camp has issued a white paper that pretty thoroughly refutes the charges. The practice of shifting insurance risks to offshore captive entities was, and remains, standard operating procedure standard operating procedure Medtalk A technique, method or therapy performed 'by the book,' using a standard protocol meeting internally or externally defined criteria; a formal, written procedure that describes how specific lab operations are to be performed. in the world of reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. . The transaction with Warren Buffett's General Re also was routine. AIG needed a loss portfolio against its reserves to maintain the industry's traditional financial ratios. In fact, what we are hearing is that Spitzer has no intention of bringing either case to trial. That would explain why he dredged up the allegations about how Greenberg allegedly went against the interests of AIG founder C.V. Starr when he died some 35 years ago. In short, it appears that Mr. Spitzer's goal is to keep these business leaders on the defensive in the newspapers, without having any real intent to go to court. That is kangaroo justice. Even if Spitzer wanted to, he doesn't have time to bring both the Grasso and Greenberg cases to trial and win them before, say, June, when the politicking for the New York State governorship gets hotter and heavier. So how is Spitzer going to defend his track record as attorney general? He lost the case against former Bank of America
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC TYO: 8648 ) is the largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of deposits, and the largest company of its kind in the world. broker Theodore C. Sihpol III and then dropped another case against Paul A. Flynn, a former trader for CIBC CIBC Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CIBC Centres Interinstitutionnels de Bilan de Compétences CIBC Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (Trinidad) CIBC Commercial International Brokerage Company , who was also accused of illegal trading in mutual funds. In short, Spitzer hasn't been successful, and that's the message that is going to be communicated to voters. He's going to run for the governorship having failed to demonstrate that his crusade was much more than politically motivated witch-hunting. Thus, Spitzer is going to have to escape a trap that he has set for himself. |
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