In a story today headlined "Documents 'Public" But Kept from View," (access it here), the Indianapolis Star reports:
A Hamilton County court decision has made the financial records of a privately owned global-accounting firm public, but they remain shielded from view. Hamilton County Superior Court Judge Steven Nation has denied a request from New York City-based Ernst & Young to seal and expunge financial information about the company from court records. Nation, however, did not lift a stay on the information, which blocks public access. He made the ruling last week in response to a request from The Indianapolis Star. Nation said he refused to lift the stay because lawyers from Ernst & Young have indicated they will file an appeal. "If the Indiana Court of Appeals disagrees with me, it wouldn't be (any) good for their side," Nation said.What are these documents? According to the abstract (access it here) of a 1/14/03 NY Times story titled "Ernst & Young Financial Details Are Disclosed In Divorce Case," the documents include:
Every detail that accounting firm Ernst & Young told American partners about its financial performance through late 2000 becomes public as part of divorce case involving chief executive Richard S Bobrow. ... Every detail that the global accounting firm Ernst & Young told its American partners about its financial performance through late 2000 became public late yesterday, including its profits, details of its capital structure, the hours billed to clients and the average earnings per partner. Many aspects of foreign operations were also disclosed.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 15, 2003 01:04 PM