In January 1999. Myron Gottlieb filed a civil lawsuit against Maria Messina, Christopher Craib, Gordon Eckstein, and three other former Livent accountants: the lawsuit charged those six individuals with responsibility for the Livent accounting fraud. In court documents filed with this lawsuit, Gottlieb alleged that he was not'anexpert on accounting practices and that he had relied on Livent's accounting staff to ensure that the company's financial statements were accurate. In responding to that lawsuit, the six named defendants, with the exception of Eckstein, claimed that they had been coerced into participating in the fraud by its principal architects. These defendants also rejected Gottlieb's assertion that he was unfamiliar with accounting practices. "Gottlieb was and remains an experienced businessman with a sophisticated and comprehensive grasp of accounting and auditing issues and intimate knowledge of the details of Livent's accounting practices.