Indictment Expected for David Stockman, President Reagan’s Budget Director

Nick Bunkley for the NY Times reports: DETROIT, March 21 — David A. Stockman, a former congressman who served as President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director, is expected to be indicted on charges of accounting fraud related to his role as chairman of an auto parts supplier, people with knowledge of the matter said Wednesday. An indictment against Mr. Stockman, who left the company, Collins & Aikman, five days before it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005, could be announced as soon as next week, people with knowledge of the matter said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation, by the office of United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia in Manhattan and United States postal inspectors, was continuing. The Securities and Exchange Commission also has been investigating Collins & Aikman and is expected to file a civil complaint against Mr. Stockman regarding the same accounting issue, one of these people, a law enforcement official, said. The other individual, someone with knowledge of Mr. Stockman’s defense strategy, said Mr. Stockman believed that an indictment would be an “overcriminalization of accounting judgments.”