Judge Dismisses Deferred Charge Against KPMG

Manhattan federal judge Loretta Preska agreed yesterday to dismiss a deferred criminal charge against KPMG. The move wasn’t necessarily unexpected: The charge was contained in a deferred-prosecution agreement the firm entered with the feds in August 2005. As part of that pact, KPMG admitted to a charge of conspiring to defraud the government by selling questionable tax shelters. KPMG also paid a $456 million fine and submitted to outside monitoring. The feds had promised to dismiss the deferred charge after Dec. 31, 2006, if KPMG complied with the agreement.