In turn, the government will not pursue any civil or administrative monetary claims against Mellon, the United States district attorney's office and Mellon Bank said Thursday, the AP reported.

The bank, a subsidiary of the Mellon Financial Corporation, had a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to process income tax returns and tax-payment checks. Mellon employees, feeling overworked and unable to meet deadlines imposed by the contract, destroyed more than 77,000 returns and checks totaling $1.3 billion at a company service center in Pittsburgh in April 2001, the AP reported.

Mellon lost its IRS contract in Pittsburgh and has paid more than $18 million to cover the interest the government would have received from the delayed payments, as well as the costs of moving the IRS processing center to another company's site in suburban Philadelphia.
-New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants