stockman_scott: Regarding Ken Lay and Enron executives...
If there is one constant in the U.S., it is that white collar crime pays handsomely. If you are a poor, young African-American male caught selling a small amount of crack cocaine, you will do hard time. If you are an executive at a Fortune 500 company, defraud thousands of investors, then siphon off millions of dollars with your buddies as the company is collapsing and leave thousands of employees with worthless 401K plans holding the bag, you MAY do a year or two in a country-club type prison.
The saving grace in all of this mess is that the lawyers will make his life miserable and will slowly bleed him of his money and assets in a never-ending wave of class-action and civil suits. As much as I despise the class-actions lawyers who file the mindless suits against any company whose stock price implodes, regardless of the circumstance (eg., Milberg-Weiss, etc.), I hope they take every cent Ken Lay, Schilling, and all the other immoral Enron executives have and leave them all bankrupt.
One final thought -- if you think this will spur any meaningful reforms regarding corporate lobbying and contributions to legislators for "favorable considerations", guess again. The best we can hope for is that the Feds will assume oversight for the equally corrupt accounting profession, who are nothing more than pimps for their corporate clients. |
