Word: e-mail
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...wake of the financial crisis, prosecutors again hoped e-mail would point to wrongdoers. In mid-2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission released e-mails that seemed to show that analysts at credit-rating agencies understood that the mortgage bonds they were rating AAA were actually much riskier than that. An analyst wrote to a colleague, "Let's hope we're all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters." However, no criminal charges have been brought against rating-agency officials. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
Then there is the case against Cioffi and Tannin. In April 2007, Tannin told Cioffi in an e-mail that there was "simply no way for us to make money - ever," for investors in their fund. Then several days later, Tannin told investors in a conference call that he was "comfortable" that his fund would continue to go up. The e-mail makes it look like Tannin was lying to his investors, but the e-mail that prosecutors cited was just one of many between the two managers. At other times, the managers seemed to be less sure that...
Prominent defense attorney Stanley S. Arkin says that even though e-mails can be credible evidence, prosecutors have taken it too far. "It has led prosecutors to bring cases that might not have been brought otherwise," says Arkin. "The problem is, e-mails can often be confusing. They are brief and often written without a lot of thought." Arkin and others say the Bear Stearns hedge-fund case shows that jurors understand that. Without other evidence, prosecutors will have a hard time convincing jurors that what someone wrote in an e-mail is definitively what they believe...
These days, even Spitzer acknowledges the limitations of e-mail in winning prosecutions. "Prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors will continue to see e-mails as powerful pieces of evidence," says Spitzer, who is now teaching a class on law and public policy at the City College of New York. "It's a powerful window into what someone is thinking at the time, but it's limited to that time and can often be misunderstood...
Friends pestering you about ‘BBM’ing during dinner? Hiding in the bathroom to check your e-mail? Get your fix without turning into that...