It sounds like a good start to the end for the gamesmanship. The Oregon Public Employee Retirement Board hired Orrick just days after I filed a law suit in October 2003 trying to halt the issuance of M29 Pension Obligation Bonds.

I do wish for evidence of criminality to be exposed. I have no doubt that it is there, and that Orrick would likely be arguing truthfully if they asserted only that they were doing exactly what the politicians had asked.

They would thus be merely a facilitator of unlawful acts. Which then implicates the Oregon State Bar Association's ability to limit the practice of law to ethical folks. Which is why I took an interest in such matters to begin with.

City Wronged by Bond Professionals, Lawsuit Says

By ANDREW DONOHUE
Voice Staff Writer
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005

A malpractice lawsuit filed Wednesday by the city of San Diego claims that hired auditors and attorneys failed to catch inaccuracies in financial statements the city used to sell more than $1 billion in bonds to investors.

Related Links

Read the lawsuit (PDF)

The suit seeks up to $100 million that attorneys say the city lost as a result of financial statements that inaccurately portrayed the funding methods and fiscal health of the city's now-troubled pension system.

The erroneous financial statements, and the subsequent revocation of its credit rating by one of the three major credit rating firms, are key elements in the fiscal crisis that grips city government. Because of the disclosure problems, the city has been exiled from Wall Street for more than a year and spent more than $18 million on consultants to untangle the resulting mess.

The city's long-delayed 2003, 2004 and 2005 financial audits remain on hold pending the completion of an internal investigation into alleged misdeeds.

"With the filing of this lawsuit the people of the city of San Diego are going to begin to fight back and hold the professionals responsible for their roles in creating and covering up the financial irregularities," said Dan Stanford, a private attorney representing the city.

The legal maneuver is one in many the city has or likely will execute as it reaches for compensation from the professionals involved at all levels of its fiscal collapse.

The suit focuses on two firms, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, the city's San Francisco-based bond counsel, and Calderon, Jaham & Osborn, the San Diego auditing firm that examined the city's books for a decade leading up to the 2003 discovery of disclosure errors.

The suit also names accounting firm Caporicci & Larson, which merged with the Calderon firm in 2003, and co-disclosure counsel Webster & Anderson.
[ Government - Voice of San Diego ]