05/03/03
Associated Press
Washington- The Senate Finance Committee chairman said yesterday he is asking federal prosecutors to move against companies caught up in accounting scandals that are seeking tax refunds because they overpaid based on the artificially inflated profits they reported.
WorldCom, Enron, Qwest Communications and HealthSouth are either pursuing or considering filing for federal tax refunds or credits for payments made on billions of dollars falsely claimed as earnings. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, the finance panel chief, said he will "encourage [the Justice Department] to take aggressive action against the companies and individuals who were in on the con."
The action could include levying criminal fines, which Grassley said may have to be increased to cover the full amounts of tax refunds claimed by companies.
The four companies - all under investigation by federal authorities for accounting violations - were among the biggest corporate scandals that came to light over the past year and a half.
Republican objections to 
Has Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), met his match in Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)? Genachowski, a buddy of President Obama from Harvard Law School, has brought a culture of wheeling and dealing to the FCC, on whose decisions billions of telecom dollars often ride.
Misuse of Legal Services Corporation funds is nothing new. The most publicized cases typically involve lawsuits by affiliated nonprofit legal groups that run contrary to the LSC charter. Recent months, however, have witnessed a different kind of problem: use of public money for private pleasure. New reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the LSC Office of Inspector General, plus 
When it comes to oversight of federal programs, President Obama and key Democratic allies appear mired in self-contradiction. On one hand, they demand more accountability from the programs. On the other, they advocate increasing budgets for agencies with documented weak internal controls. Legal Services Corporation (LSC) may be the most glaring example of this syndrome.
