Buffalo, NY – Members of the Rigas family are likely to face federal indictments this week.
USA Today is reporting that John Rigas and his three sons are also expected to be named in a civil suit related to the financial troubles at Adelphia Communications.
The criminal charges, believed to include bank, mail and wire fraud, are part of a Justice Department investigation.
The Securites and Exchange Commission is expected to file the civil case, based on false reporting in Adelphia's public filings.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is not directly involved in any of the ongoing investigations into Adelphia Communications. But he is watching what happens in this current climate of corporate wrong-doing.
Spitzer said it appears Congress will act quickly to pass tougher laws cracking down on white collar crime.
"I think Adelphia is part of the long litany of companies where we found impropriety in the board room. We are addressing that at the global level through new rules for corporate behavior," Spitzer said.
Spitzer, himself, received national attention in May when he reached a settlement with Merrill Lynch for conflicts of interest involving the company's analysts.
Spitzer was critical of President Bush's Wall Street speech last week, saying it was "too little, too late." He said the President should have come out on the issue of corporate misdeeds six months ago rather than now.