• Camille Cosby, the wife of comedian Bill Cosby, Thursday called for a criminal investigation into the suburban Philadelphia prosecutor behind her husband's sexual assault conviction, saying the case that could put the 80-year-old comedian in prison for the rest of his life was "mob justice, not real justice" and a "tragedy." Camille Cosby made her first comments on the verdict in a three-page statement sent to the media through a family spokesman as institutions from Hollywood to Madison Avenue continued to wipe away the remnants of his legacy. Bill Cosby was expelled on Thursday from the motion picture academy and the Advertising Hall of Fame. She compared her husband of 54 years, convicted a week ago on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, to Emmett Till and other blacks mistreated by the justice system. Cosby's lawyers have vowed to appeal. "Once again, an innocent person has been found guilty based on an unthinking, unquestioning, unconstitutional frenzy propagated by the media and allowed to play out in a supposed court of law," she said. "This is mob justice, not real justice. This tragedy must be undone not just for Bill Cosby, but for the country." Camille Cosby, 74, said chief accuser Andrea Constand was a liar whose testimony about being drugged and molested at Cosby's home in January 2004 was "riddled with innumerable, dishonest contradictions." She echoed Cosby's lawyers, who contended that Constand framed him to score a big payday. Her statement did not address behavior Cosby has admitted to, such as philandering and contention that he was having a consensual affair with Constand.
• Jay-Z is in hot water with Wall Street's top regulator. The Hip-hop mogul, whose given name is Shawn Carter, is the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement subpoena after failing to testify as part of an agency investigation of accounting practices at Iconix Brand Group Inc., which paid $200 million to acquire assets from his Rocawear apparel brand in 2007. The agency is seeking Carter's testimony after Iconix wrote down the value of Rocawear by $169 million in March 2016 and another $34 million this year, the SEC said. The SEC initially issued a subpoena for Carter's testimony in November. In February, after he retained new counsel, the SEC issued a second subpoena for testimony, according to the statement. Carter, who hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, failed to appear as required by the subpoenas and has declined to say when he would appear for investigative testimony, the regulator said. "We are aware that the SEC is seeking information on Iconix's financial reporting," a Jay Z spokesman said in a statement. "Mr. Carter had no role in that reporting or Iconix' s other actions as a public company. Mr. Carter is a private citizen who should not be involved in this matter."
A Section on 05/04/2018