“The former leadership of Dewey & LeBoeuf has been charged by US authorities with ‘a massive effort to cook the books’ nearly two years after the law firm’s record-breaking collapse.”

“The firm’s former chairman, executive director and chief financial officer all face criminal charges filed in an indictment by the Manhattan district attorney, and civil charges filed in a parallel investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the authorities said in a co-ordinated statement on Thursday.”

“‘Fraud is not an acceptable accounting practice. The defendants are accused of concocting and overseeing a massive effort to cook the books at Dewey & LeBoeuf,’ said Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan DA. ‘Those at the top of the law firm directed employees to hide the firm’s true financial condition from creditors, investors, auditors, and even partners of the firm, until the scheme unravelled and resulted in the largest law firm bankruptcy in history.’”

“The indictment comes nearly two years after Dewey, which traced its history back almost a century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2012 with liabilities of $315m, making it one of the biggest collapses of a US law firm by any measure.”

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Read full Financial Times article here.