Four former executives of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP were charged by New York prosecutors yesterday with orchestrating a nearly four-year scheme to manipulate the firm’s books to keep it afloat during the financial crisis, and prosecutors said that the men talked openly in emails about “fake income,” “accounting tricks” and their ability to fool the firm’s “clueless auditor,” the New York Times DealBook blog reported today. The messages were included in a 106-count indictment against Steven Davis, Dewey’s former chairman; Stephen DiCarmine, the firm’s former executive director; Joel Sanders, the former chief financial officer; and Zachary Warren, a former client relations manager. They were charged with larceny and securities fraud. One of the men even used the phrase “cooking the books” to describe what they were doing to mislead the firm’s lenders and creditors in setting the stage for a $150 million debt offering that was supposed to solve the firm’s financial woes, according to the messages.
