Should corporations be held liable for the actions taken by employees that violate company regulations? That is the question at the heart of a case currently before U.S. Court of Appeals in New York. In the middle is Greek shipping company, Ionia Management, which was recently convicted in Connecticut for illegal dumping.

In an interesting twist, Ionia is being represented by former Federal prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, who's name may be familiar to you for his former role as the Director of the Justice Department's Enron task force. All the talk is that the Ionia case is headed straight for the Supreme court, but that would first require a ruling for the government at the appeals level.

For a learned opinion on th arguments in the case and what a ruling in Ionia's favor could mean for coporate prospections, check out Mark Godsey's post over at the always interesting CrimProf Blog. See also this post from Ellen Podgor over at the White Collar Crime Prof Blog, which was written back in June of this year as Ionia approached it's current appeal.

-- MDT

Labels: Andrew Weissmann