Wheel, Deal, and Steal: Deceptive Accounting, Deceitful CEOs, and Ineffective Reforms

Chapter 9. The Corruption of the Analysts

According to analysts at Salomon Smith Barney, the CEO of Conseco demanded that Salomon change critical comments it made about the company, saying, “Don’t you know I spent $20 million in fees at your firm last year?!” Conseco had recently had one of the largest restatements of earnings in U.S. corporate history.^[147]

Addressing the role of the investment banks in the scandals, Felix Rohatyn, formerly a banker himself, commented, “If Wall Street knows what is good for it and what is good for the country, it will very definitely clean up its act.”^[148] But there’s no evidence at all that under its current leadership Wall Street has any concern for what is good for our country. Only enlightened self-interest ...