The commission set up by Congress to dig into the U.S. financial
crisis is releasing more than its final report today, as it begins
putting online a trove of investigative documents.
Lawyers for companies at the center of the crisis have wondered what might become of the documents, given that, as The National Law Journal reported
in August, they had been internal to the companies and could be of
interest to the plaintiffs’ bar. Many of those companies have already
been battling proposed securities class actions.
The archive appears on the Web site
of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, and hundreds of documents
are already up, including testimony and court filings. At a news
conference this morning, Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman and a
former California state treasurer, said the commission would be posting
more, including “research and investigative documents, audio and
transcripts.”
Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal
Reform, criticized that plan. “The commission’s final report and its
pledge to post raw materials — apparently including information obtained
from companies as well as other government agencies — is an astounding
abuse of process that would effectively create a government-sanctioned
Wikileaks,” Rickard said in a formal statement today.
Angelides did not address those concerns during the news conference,
and a spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment
this afternoon.
Last year, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) took aim at one of the
commission’s members, Byron Georgiou, and a staff member, Christopher
Seefer, because they are on leave from plaintiffs firm Robbins Geller
Rudman & Dowd. The firm handles some securities litigation. Georgiou
is of counsel there, while Seefer, who was the commission’s director of
investigations, is a partner.
At the time, Angelides responded that there was no conflict of
interest because commission policies prohibit staff members from
disclosing information the commission hasn’t itself released.
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