Honda plans output hike

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 10, 2002

Looking at exec wrongdoing

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's choice as the nation's top corporate crime fighter, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has spent much of his career as a private attorney defending clients from allegations of fraud and white collar crime. Now, as head of the Justice Department's Corporate Fraud Task Force, Thompson is being asked to turn that experience into successful prosecutions of corporate wrongdoing.

Bush announced the new agency Tuesday in a speech on Wall Street, describing it as a financial crimes SWAT team. The task force will prosecute cases of securities, accounting, tax, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes. As the Justice Department's second-in-command, Thompson has been a key figure in dealing with the unraveling of corporate giants Enron and WorldCom and the auditing firm Arthur Andersen.

Suing Northwest

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The former chief executive of Northwest Airlines has filed a lawsuit against the airline to recover nearly $430,000 in pension benefits. John Dasburg, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, claims Northwest agreed to pay him $449,799 in a lump sum, but that he has only received $21,726.

Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, vowed Tuesday to fight the lawsuit "vigorously." Spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said the carrier was surprised and disappointed by the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday. Dasburg, who led Northwest through a tumultuous period beginning late in 1989, left the airline in April 2001 to become chairman, chief executive and president of Burger King in Miami. He was replaced by Richard Anderson.

Suing over tax shelters

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government filed federal lawsuits Tuesday seeking documents from two major accounting firms detailing tax shelters they have promoted, part of a broader crackdown on arrangements done solely to escape taxes. The Justice Department, on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, filed the lawsuits in Washington against KPMG and in Chicago against BDO Seidman. Government lawyers contend neither firm gave the IRS the documents it seeks for its investigation of tax shelters. The action, coming amid several major corporate accounting scandals, is a signal to U.S. business that the IRS "will vigorously use all enforcement authority available to it" to obtain information about shelters, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti said.