"Company kept two sets of books...." Really? Wow....something new?

Executives of Health Care Finance Company Convicted of Fraud
Posted by Jerri Lynn Ward, J.D. on March 14, 2008
Five executives of National Century Financial Enterprises, a finance company which bought accounts receivables of small hospitals and nursing homes, have been convicted by a federal jury of wire and securities fraud. The company went bankrupt in 2002 and the executives were accused of hiding losses from shareholders by moving money around in accounts and keeping two sets of books.

Here is the defense attorneys’ position:

Attorneys for the five defendants said prosecutors took the company’s activities out of context by showing jurors only a tiny slice of National Century’s operations.

That’s what federal prosecutors do in some of the cases which criminalize bad business decisions. They also threaten defendants into testifying against their cohorts:

The government’s star witness, former executive vice president Sherry Gibson, testified last month that the company kept two sets of books, one for public consumption filled with false information, the other that showed the firm’s actual shortfalls. Gibson is one of four former National Century executives who previously pleaded guilty to fraud charges and have cooperated with the government.

So it’s really rich when the Feds turn around and prosecute someone on the other side for witness tampering:

Missing from the trial has been National Century’s former president and chief executive, Lance Poulsen, a chief target of the government’s allegations.

Before his own trial on the fraud charges in August, Poulsen is scheduled for a trial Monday before Marbley on charges of witness tampering.

He’s accused of offering to pay a witness for testimony. Well, what is the Federal government doing when it threatens witnesses with long jail sentences and then offers less time for their testimony? Do you think they always get the truth out of witnesses with that tactic?