Hourly Hyberbole - Beefing Up the Pension Payout
In what must be an amazing "way to go" moment for any journalist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dave Umhoefer earns the Pulitzer Prize for his detective-like reporting about pension trickery in Milwaukee County. According to "Pension investigation earns reporter Pulitzer: Umhoefer scoured county data for 6 months," Bill Glauber writes that privileged workers were allowed to buoy their benefits by purchasing "service time for seasonal and part-time jobs held decades ago" (Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 7, 2008). Certainly novel, this form of back-dating is said to violate county and IRS rules galore. Congratulations to Mr. Umhoefer for bringing fraud to light on behalf of honest plan participants.
In "Buybacks may figure in pension lawsuit" (Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 12, 2008), reporters Steve Schultze and John Diedrich write that legal documents have the county claiming that "its full costs of the '01 pension perks will reach in excess of $600 million." Alleging failure to give "adequate warning of the potentially steep costs of the lump-sum provision and related benefits while they were under consideration in 2000," the county seeks redress from defendant Mercer Co. The pension consulting firm counters that the county is "seeking to pass the buck for its own failings."
On the topic of fraud, infamous rogue trader Nick Leeson (remember the sale of Barings Bank to ING for a nominal sum?) warns of a "black hole in some markets unless risk-management systems" catch up with the "sophistication of trading desks." Now a "been there, done that" luminary on the speakers' circuit, Leeson apparently corroborates the intended defense of Jerome Kerviel in Rogue Trader v. French Bank. In "Leeson warns of fraud 'black hole' in markets," Financial Times reporter Jeremy Grant (April 9, 2008) writes that corporate negligence will take the stand as Kerviel shouts "J'accuse" and ponders how his jumbo trading could go unchecked for so long.
If HBO found entertainment value in L'Affaire Leeson ("Rogue Trader" starring Ewan McGregor, 1998), can a french film version be too far behind? With so much real-life intrigue, Hollywood writers have little need to imagine.
