Accounting, I admit, is not the normal stuff of true-crime drama. But among accused finaglers walking perplike into court, former bean counters at accounting firm KPMG have more cause than most to question White House tactics against financial fraud.
The crime the accountants stand accused of is peddling iffy tax shelters, arcane financial deals that shield income from the IRS. Shelters are O.K. if they serve a true business purpose, and the KPMG gang insisted that its did. Yet over the past four years, the accountants have taken a prosecutorial beating. A Senate subcommittee publicly grilled them. The Justice Department suggested they blab without their lawyers present. KPMG, bending to government pressure, stopped covering its employees' crushing legal bills. And all this happened before any court ruled the tax shelters improper.
It has made the Bush Administration look tough on financial fraud. The accountants seem headed for criminal trials, and KPMG coughed up $456 million to settle separately with the government. Yet just when we're prepared to be impressed, the White House pulls a U-turn.
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