The former chief operating officer of Dewey & LeBoeuf, Dennis D'Alessandro, told prosecutors he was unaware of inappropriate accounting at the firm and did not believe his colleagues were doing anything illegal, the New York Law Journal reported today. The disclosure of D'Alessandro's statements turned over to the defense by the Manhattan District Attorney's office comes less than two months before trial is set to begin against three former Dewey leaders: ex-chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and chief financial officer Joel Sanders. Defense attorneys said that D'Alessandro's statements will be "very helpful" in establishing their clients' innocence. The Dewey defendants face more than 100 charges alleging they caused others at Dewey to make tens of millions of dollars of fraudulent accounting entries, which contributed to the firm's 2012 collapse.
