Former AOL mid-level execs free from charges

Two former mid-level executives at America Online (and a third defendent of PurchasePro) were acquitted Tuesday on all counts of charges they conspired with the former Las Vegas software firm to make its revenues look larger than they really were. The three had been accused of deceiving PurchasePro stockholders about the company's revenue in Q1 2001 as the dot-com bubble burst. The trial was nearly three-months long.

PurchasePro had AOL as a revenue partner and prosecutors alleged that AOL , a division of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), was motivated to assist PurchasePro's fraud because AOL received a commission every time it helped sell PurchasePro's "marketplace license" that facilitated B2B transactions over the Internet.

Here is the full AP story from the Houston Chronicle. This is a good example of when the prosecution should be forced to pay what can be insurmountable legal fees for individuals and parties that are found innocent. That would make small government accountable and it would mean that they would only go after real cases rather than career-makers.

If you look down at the end of the story you can see for how much AOL settled certain aspects of a case, and it isn't chump change.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; He does not own securities in the companies he covers.