Called a "rising star" by The New York Times, David Anders '91 added yet another success story to his already impressive resume when his prosecution team successfully convicted former WorldCom Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers last month.
Anders joined the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force in late 2000, just before the country's recent deluge of corporate scandal, giving Anders the opportunity to work on several high-profile cases, including the prosecution of former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker Frank Quattrone last year.
"I'm really lucky to get these opportunities," Anders said. "Not everybody gets these opportunities, and a lot of it is being at the right place at the right time."
Anders joined the task force because its cases have a better chance of going to trial and often pit government prosecutors against superior defense lawyers. Ebbers was found guilty on criminal counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, and seven counts of making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, charges that have the potential to send Ebbers to prison for 85 years.
Through his extensive cross-examination of Ebbers, Anders helped convince the jury that Ebbers, a folksy former milkman and bouncer, actively participated in the company's $11 billion accounting fraud.
"It's rare that there are 'Perry Mason' moments in a trial," Anders said, "I don't think that any prosecutor, in cross-examining the defendant, expects the defendant to say 'You're right, I did it'. Defendants often tend to fight and it makes what you're doing very difficult, but at the end of the day it's effective, because it shows the demeanor of the defendant and its general contrast to the demeanor of the cooperating witnesses."
The prosecution's closing statements, which Anders helped formulate, asked the jury to compare Ebbers' noticeably evasive and long-winded answers to those of Scott Sullivan, former chief financial officer for WorldCom, and the government's star witness. Because Sullivan's testimony was offered in exchange for leniency from the government, Ebbers' lawyers tried to draw its veracity into question.
"In every single trial we do where we call a cooperating witness, the defense will call the testimony into question," Anders said, noting that Sullivan's testimony was verified through other evidence, "The fact is we don't call someone to the stand who we don't think is telling the truth."
While at Dartmouth, Anders was a Government major, and a member of the Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity. He graduated Fordham University School of Law in 1994. He worked at various private law firms and clerked for Denny Chin, Federal District Court Judge in Manhattan, before joining the U.S. attorney's office.
Despite the recent media attention, Anders' true passion remains trial work.
"That's what's fun about trying cases," Anders said. "You have to figure out both how to educate the jury about the subject matter, educate them about what happened here specifically, and put it in a way that doesn't bore them to death. You're figuring out how to take tons of material, boil it down in a manageable way that people can follow and gets them interested, and get a result."
