Email is emerging as the most critical piece of evidence in an investigation at Morgan Stanley over whether executives and business leaders influenced the IT department to gain favors and gifts from customers and clients. Initiated by an ex-employee's claim that he was fired for trying to blow the whistle on the alleged criminal actions, the investigation is focused on what IT leaders knew, what they did for business executives and whether IT efforts were part of business sales efforts. The incident is also raising questions about whether Morgan Stanley's email application development and use by certain business executives violated regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

For more on the email trail:
- read this article at InformationWeek