Caveat vendor.

The article focuses on investment bank Morgan Stanley, which is facing an attempt by dissident former managers to unseat its chief executive. On May 16th the investment bank was ordered by a Florida court to pay $604 million for defrauding Ronald Perelman, one of America's smartest and richest investors. Perelman contended that Morgan Stanley had misled him in 1998 when he agreed to accept shares in its client, appliance manufacturer Sunbeam, in exchange for his controlling interest in Coleman, a supplier of camping equipment. In a pre-trial ruling, the judge, Elizabeth Maass instructed the jury that the bank had conspired with Sunbeam to defraud Perelman. Morgan Stanley had consistently failed to turn over internal e-mails. As the bank had done in other investigations, it blamed the omissions on computer errors. In Perelman it faced an adversary who was implacable, well represented and determined to extract more than a token settlement; past opponents, mainly regulators, have been more easily satisfied. Worse still for the bank, it faced a judge who found its delays and evasive answers to requests intolerable.