I would be remiss if I didn’t note this New York Times report on prison sentences for former insiders at Milberg Weiss for their roles in the former high-flying class action law firm’s kickback scheme. Interestingly, both former partners, Steven Schulman and David Bershad, reportedly cooperated with federal investigators to provide critical detail on the law firm’s misconduct.

There’s a certain level of sad irony in this. I won’t defend Milberg Weiss. They did wrong, and the take down is the right result. But the sad thing is that their securities work was one of the few thin forms of protection when Wall Street engaged in misconduct.  So I’m hoping that these take downs are just a prelude for the next round. Because I have to imagine that there are some people at AIG, at Bear Stearns, at some of the investment firms and credit rating agencies who did similar or worse.

David Sugerman

One of the big fire-up issues at the recent Republican convention was the whole off-shore drilling push. I kept hearing these chants and seeing signs, “Drill here, drill now!” The chanting in St. Paul seemed a bit inane to me. While I’m not much on the nuances of geology, I’m pretty sure that the Twin Cities would be a poor bet for placing a well.  But you never know when you roll the dice drilling for oil, I guess.

Looks like Big Oil’s push operated on all fronts, so to speak, with these revelations from the U.S. Department of Interior that its oil and gas lease collections people were literally in bed with Big Oil. In bed, doing cocaine and lining the pockets of the regulators.  Seems like the whole drill here, drill now thing is another Big Oil ruse. Or maybe it’s more that Big Oil, as Ricky Ricardo famously said, simply has “got some ’splainin’ to do.”

David Sugerman

I do most of the grocery shopping for the family, so like everyone else, I’ve been wide-eyed at the steep increase in food prices.  I’ve heard a lot about rising fuel prices, credit crunches, and inflation as part of the talking heads’ various explanations for the whys of it all.

I almost missed this piece on a federal lawsuit against a vegetable processor, SK Foods, that alleges that SK bribed purchasing agents at various food companies to keep SK’s prices high. If it’s true, some big companies like Safeway, Heinz, Kraft, were getting bribes to inflate prices on SK’s goods.

Nothing like graft, corruption and bribery to add to the cost of living. I couldn’t resist the urge to check in with my good friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They’re the ones that keep screaming about “lawsuit abuse” as the great drag on the American economy. Of course, they don’t seem to discuss this lawsuit as an example of “lawsuit abuse.” In fact, they don’t talk about bribery at all. I suppose in the Chamber’s world, the government shouldn’t bring lawsuits to address bribery and corruption by large corporations.

David Sugerman