morganknight (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
morganknight) wrote2004-03-21 05:21 pm
morganknight) wrote2004-03-21 05:21 pm
Newspaper Clipping, March 21
Proof of Wrongdoing Found in Mill Disaster
Knight Paying Damages, Company Under Fire
LOS ANGELES -- Investigators recovered financial ledgers from the damaged offices of Knight Textile's Chief Financial Officer yesterday, which conclusively demonstrated that CFO Aaron Lane had embezzled funds which had been allocated for maintenance, thus causing the fatal disaster of March 17th.
Based on this evidence, Lane was taken into custody by Los Angeles police without incident later that day.
In a press conference yesterday evening, police chief Ronald Bateman described what he termed "a childishly simple" scheme by Lane to skim money from the corporation. "Basically," Chief Batemen said, "he forged the maintenance records and kept the money for himself, trusting that no one would ever have cause to check with the maintenance companies themselves to see if the work was done. Since the high-profile, most-visible maintenance was still done, no one had cause to believe that any fraud was occurring."
Chief Batemen stated that his office believes that this lack of maintenance was the "immediate and direct" cause of the disaster of March 17, which left twenty three dead.
Across town, Knight Corporation president Morgan Knight issued a press release in which he took upon his corporation responsibility for the financial repercussions of the incident. Knight Corporation stated that it would pay for all funeral arrangements, medical expenses, and clean-up costs incurred by the machinery's meltdown, as well as compensate the city with a lump sum of one million dollars to be spent "recompensing the men, women, and institutions of the city whose talents were called upon and whose lives were affected so dramatically by this terrible incident."
Some city councilmen immediately expressed opposition to this idea, but most seemed grateful that Knight Corporation had taken SEE MILL PAGE A5
Knight Paying Damages, Company Under Fire
LOS ANGELES -- Investigators recovered financial ledgers from the damaged offices of Knight Textile's Chief Financial Officer yesterday, which conclusively demonstrated that CFO Aaron Lane had embezzled funds which had been allocated for maintenance, thus causing the fatal disaster of March 17th.
Based on this evidence, Lane was taken into custody by Los Angeles police without incident later that day.
In a press conference yesterday evening, police chief Ronald Bateman described what he termed "a childishly simple" scheme by Lane to skim money from the corporation. "Basically," Chief Batemen said, "he forged the maintenance records and kept the money for himself, trusting that no one would ever have cause to check with the maintenance companies themselves to see if the work was done. Since the high-profile, most-visible maintenance was still done, no one had cause to believe that any fraud was occurring."
Chief Batemen stated that his office believes that this lack of maintenance was the "immediate and direct" cause of the disaster of March 17, which left twenty three dead.
Across town, Knight Corporation president Morgan Knight issued a press release in which he took upon his corporation responsibility for the financial repercussions of the incident. Knight Corporation stated that it would pay for all funeral arrangements, medical expenses, and clean-up costs incurred by the machinery's meltdown, as well as compensate the city with a lump sum of one million dollars to be spent "recompensing the men, women, and institutions of the city whose talents were called upon and whose lives were affected so dramatically by this terrible incident."
Some city councilmen immediately expressed opposition to this idea, but most seemed grateful that Knight Corporation had taken SEE MILL PAGE A5