Re: Absolute Does Not Respond to Two Plus Two’s Fraud Investigation Offer
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Hi Everyone:
... In order to accept, however, my attorneys needed to make it very clear that:
4. They would accept direct compensation for the investigation only from Two Plus Two as a client.
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Best Wishes,
Mason Malmuth
Two Plus Two Publishing
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Mason,
This is a blurring of the financial facts at best. AP was paying for this. And that matters.
Or more to the point, you should have said:
4. They would accept INDIRECT compensation for the investigation only from AP as a client.
Seriously, this was a horrible idea. Investigations that are funded by the bad guys NEVER work. Because the good guys have to be seen to be beyond question. And of course that goes beyond 2+2.
I'm sure you know this. Don't you?
DUCY etc etc.
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Umm, no. Because Two Plus Two is the client, the firm's ethical obligations all run to 2 plus two. This is exactly and precisely the right way to handle this. In fact, without permission/prior arrangement, AP wouldn't even be entitled to know the outcome/results/analysis. They are not the lawyer's client.
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El hombre
You are correct that the legal team's ethical obligations run only to 2+2. But that's not my point. The problem with the financial arrangement is that it leaves 2+2's own ethical position open to compromise if the result should prove not as damning to AP as most people anticipate it that it will.
The fact that Mason should include point 4) in his message while not revealing the funds were actually originating from AP is definitely a case of being selective with the facts.
And if the investiagtion is to have maximum respectability, then we need ALL the facts, not just the facts that Mason or the team think we are ready to hear.
Btw, 2+2 must anticipate some form of benefit from setting up a legal investigation, even if this benefit is not immediately financial.
I'm not saying there's a better route. But this form of indirect funding is definitely dangerous, and should have been immediately disclosed in the OP.
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