The former finance director of the bankrupt law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking part in a scheme to manipulate the firm’s financial statements, told New York prosecutors that the firm’s former chairman, Steven Davis, was nervous before a meeting with an auditor to discuss the firm’s 2010 finances, the New York Times DealBook Blog reported yesterday. Francis Canellas, in a statement made as part of his plea agreement with New York prosecutors, said he believed that Davis was nervous because he was worried the auditor from Ernst & Young would detect some of the “inappropriate adjustments” that were being made to Dewey’s financial statements by the firm’s finance team. The statement from Canellas and his plea on Feb. 13 to one count of grand larceny were unsealed yesterday by Justice Michael J. Obus of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
