SCOTUS Hears Third Party Fraud Case

From NPR.com: The U.S. Supreme Court is due to hear arguments in a case testing the rights of investors who are asking to recover losses from third parties, such as insurance and accounting firms, and banks that they say help corporations perpetrate a fraud.

In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed that the integrity of the marketplace is at stake.

Siding with big business, President Bush overruled the commission, contending that to allow such investor claims to go forward would lead to billions of dollars in potentially abusive lawsuits.

The case before the Supreme Court involves cable company Charter Communications. The St. Louis-based company is alleged to have deceived investors by conspiring with two of its vendors to make Charter's balance sheet look better than it was. Listen. . . [Mark Godsey]