Smoking E-mails

KPMG's tax shelters weren't too bright. Its internal memos on the shelters were really dim-witted. "In April 2002 a KPMG executive sent an internal e-mail to 33 recipients reporting, matter-of-factly, that the firm had just given a purposely incomplete list of tax shelter clients to the Internal Revenue Service. This prompted another KPMGer to e-mail vice chairman Jeffrey Stein: "Given the sensitivity of this situation, should we be putting all this in print?" Good question.  Stein and seven other former KPMGtax advisers have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit tax fraud. Much of the government's case--which led KPMGto admit to criminal wrongdoing and agree to pay $456 million--is built on e-mails that would make any defense lawyer cringe. "The e-mails are smoking guns . . . "