Dewey Financial Controller Testifies to Falsifying Records

Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former financial controller, Ilya Alter, testified at the trial of the firm’s top executives Tuesday that he helped falsify accounting entries in order make it look like the firm had fewer expenses than it did at the end of 2008. Alter is one of seven former employees who agreed to cooperate with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in exchange for a lighter sentence and is the third such witness to testify in the trial of former chair Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and former CFO Joel Sanders.

During his direct examination of Alter, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Steve Pilnyak projected slides from a budget presentation Alter sent to Sanders on March 7, 2009. The presentation was meant for the executive committee, but some of the slides were marked “Steve’s copy,” indicating that those particular slides were to be seen only by DiCarmine, Alter said. (He agreed that during his original conversations with the district attorney’s office, he was not sure which Steve it referred to, but he was later shown emails that led him to believe it was DiCarmine.)