"Or," not "and"
With a far gentler pedantry than that so often used in its in-house style memoranda, The Wall Street Journal works a grammar lesson into its coverage of KPMG's involvement in questionable tax-shelter deals. This description, in an article by Cassell Bryan-Low, is of an e-mail exchange between two KPMG executives over the propriety of the firm's involvement in the transactions:
On May 10, 1999, Philip Wiesner, a senior partner in KPMG's Washington technical tax group, sent a lengthy e-mail to colleagues urging them to approve the BLIPS strategy. "I do believe the time has come to s -- t and get off the pot," he wrote, incorrectly using a profane expression, according to the Senate panel's report. "The business decisions to me are primarily two: (1) Have we drafted the opinion with the appropriate limiting bells and whistles ... and (2) Are we being paid enough to offset the risks of potential litigation resulting from the transaction?"
He added: "My own recommendation is that we should be paid a lot of money here for our opinion since the transaction is clearly one that the IRS would view as falling squarely within the tax shelter orbit."
Later that day, Mr. Stein responded in an e-mail: "I think it's s -- t OR get off the pot. I vote for s -- t." Mr. Wiesner, who was among those testifying at Tuesday's hearing, couldn't be reached Tuesday afternoon for comment, and Mr. Stein didn't return calls. A KPMG spokesman said Messrs. Stein and Wiesner were unavailable for comment.
