Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

ACCOUNTING
A DOZEN MORE TO BE INDICTED IN KPMG CASE, PROSECUTOR SAYS
The prosecutor handling the case against eight former KPMG LLP partners charged with fraud stemming from the sale of abusive tax shelters said “at least a dozen” more people will be indicted. “We do plan to add additional defendants, at least a dozen,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Weddle said in Manhattan federal court yesterday, where all the defendants entered not guilty pleas. Mr. Weddle said a new indictment could be filed within three months. A KPMG spokesman, Tom Fitzgerald, declined to comment.
– Bloomberg News
ENERGY
LAWMAKERS CONSIDER PROPOSALS TO EASE PAIN OF HIGH GAS PRICES
Lawmakers around the country are entertaining proposals to ease the pain of soaring gas prices for consumers, considering everything from suspensions of local gas taxes to rebates for motorists. But, so far, some are reluctant to act, partly out of concern for their states’ bottom lines but also because they wonder whether motorists will even notice the difference if prices continue to climb.
The retail price of unleaded gasoline skyrocketed by 45.9 cents to a new record last week in Hurricane Katrina’s wake, averaging $3.069 nationwide, the Energy Department said yesterday. That puts pump prices $1.219 a gallon above last year.
After prices shot up and panicky motorists topped off their tanks, causing brief shortages, Governor Perdue of Georgia last week ordered a month long moratorium on state gas taxes. The order suspends Georgia’s 7.5 cents-a-gallon excise tax and 4% sales tax on gasoline until the end of September.
Meanwhile, the gradual recovery of some Gulf Coast petroleum operations hobbled by Hurricane Katrina helped send oil futures sharply lower yesterday and analysts predicted that pump prices, now averaging more than $3 a gallon, would decline slightly. – Associated Press
TECHNOLOGY
MICROSOFT: EXECUTIVE USED INSIDER INFORMATION TO GET GOOGLE JOB
SEATTLE – A former Microsoft executive, Kai-Fu Lee, used insider information to get himself at job at rival Google in violation of a noncompete agreement, a Microsoft lawyer alleged yesterday. In approaching Google about a job, Mr. Lee sent an e-mail stating, “I am currently the corporate vice president at Microsoft working on areas very related to Google,” the attorney, Jeff Johnson, said. “He was saying, ‘Look what I did at Microsoft and look what I can do for you,'” Mr. Johnson said Monday at a hearing before King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez. Mr. Lee, who had worked at Microsoft beginning in 2000, joined Google in July to lead the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search engine company’s expansion into China. Attorneys for Google said in court yesterday that much of what Mr. Lee knew about the Chinese market came from his previous work experience at Apple Computer and other companies, and that Microsoft was exaggerating the extent of his work for Microsoft on China.
– Associated Press
GOOGLE LAUNCHES LOCAL SEARCH SERVICE IN CHINA
Google launched a local search service in China on Sunday, marking the company’s latest move to expand its presence in the vast country’s fast-growing online marketplace. Google Local, which has up to now been available only in America, Britain, Canada, and Japan, allows Web users to use keyword searches to find businesses in particular cities – for example, coffee shops in Shanghai – and see their locations plotted on a map. Many Internet companies are pursuing local initiatives in efforts to tap into huge offline yellow-page advertising markets. The new service, Google Bendi, provides information for more than 100 Chinese cities, a Google spokesman said. Maps are available for searches related to more than 70 of those cities through a partnership with Mapabc.com, a Beijing-based Web-based mapping service.
– Dow Jones Newswires
IN BRIEF
The Federal Reserve can afford a “wait and see” approach to assessing the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina before raising interest rates again, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said … The Fed is also likely to conclude that Hurricane Katrina poses more risk of inflation than of an economic slowdown, and probably will raise rates on September 20 while signaling it may pause later if there are lingering effects on growth and hiring … BellSouth, the largest provider of local phone service in the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, estimates it will cost the company at least $400 million to $600 million to restore service … Coordination of hundreds of federal lawsuits over Merck’s withdrawn painkiller Vioxx is being moved to Houston from New Orleans, at least temporarily, because of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina … Morgan Stanley said Michael Miles stepped down. Mr. Miles, a former chairman of cigarette maker Philip Morris, now known as the Altria Group, resigned effective immediately … Morgan has also agreed to pay $700,000 to settle a complaint brought by the state Department of Justice regarding improper trading … The Carlyle Group, manager of the biggest American buyout fund, will invest $400 million to buy 24.9% of China Pacific Insurance Company’s life insurance business … Boeing won an order from Singapore for new fighter planes, beating French plane-maker Dassault Aviation … Americans who own stock mutual funds are paying about 6% less in annual management fees than they did before the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, began his assault on trading abuses, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Morningstar.
– Bloomberg News