Class WarfareBethany Broida; Legal Times; September 19, 2005 D.C. plaintiffs firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll has jumped into the litigation surrounding KPMG and its sale of fraudulent tax shelters in filing a class action Sept. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit -- the fourth class action filed against the accounting firm -- alleges KPMG made more than $128 million in fees from the sale of two tax shelters. After the Internal Revenue Service found that the shelters were bogus, clients were hit with millions of dollars in back taxes, penalties, and legal fees. Steven Toll, managing partner at Cohen, Milstein, estimates there are about 250 potential members of the class. Additionally, dozens of other individual suits have been filed against the firm in courts across the country. Last month, KPMG acknowledged wrongdoing in the sale of these shelters in a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. Toll says his firm had a pretty strong case before, but the admission makes it even stronger. |
