Re ST article: Looks like several others agree with the AA being a BIG cut above the others.. Here's some letters from the ST Letters to the Editor today:
Letters to the editor
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Ethical survey
What is wrong with a climate that rewards the unscrupulous?
Editor, The Times:
There is something seriously wrong with a system that not only does not punish people who lie and cheat but actually rewards them for doing so. Lying and cheating are wrong but since some people do not recognize this, laws and punishments were created to minimize these behaviors in our society.
This week's articles about InfoSpace ("Dot-con job: How InfoSpace took its investors for a ride," Times 3-part investigative series, March 6-8) and the University of Washington/football coach Rick Neuheisel settlement ("Neuheisel: I'm vindicated," page one, March 8) make it clear that the inherent wrong of lying and cheating does not mean anything to some people and the threat of punishment and penalties does not cause them to pause to consider their actions. Worse, they will be rewarded for acts deserving censure and penalties.
Neuheisel and the InfoSpace executives are able to walk away with unjustly gained millions. How can we hope others in our society, especially our young people, will develop a sense of integrity and responsibility for their actions when these examples are on the front page?
— Jo Higgie, Seattle
Has your outlook changed?
My congratulations to The Seattle Times for a magnificent job of investigative reporting. The series on InfoSpace and its founder Naveen Jain ("Dot-con job") is simply the best piece of business investigatory journalism I have seen in 30 years of reading the Seattle area business press. Most remarkably was the persistence of The Times in pursing the story, both in terms of time and money.
The dot-com bust resulted in fortunes made and lost and many investors victimized by unscrupulous and greedy business executives who, because of their insider knowledge and manipulation of the financial press, ran their stocks up and then got out before the bubble burst.
The failure of public institutions to protect the public from financial manipulation provides a lesson in stock-market investing: The stock market is still the Wild West when it comes to public protection, a point we should well ponder before transferring more of our Social Security monies into private market accounts.
Yes, I too was a hapless investor in InfoSpace and contributed to the current opulent lifestyle of Jain. There is for me a particular satisfaction in seeing the inside story finally told.
— Bill Erxleben, Newcastle
Can you plan for disaster?
In case your readers think all the damage Naveen Jain did is behind us, think again. He and charlatans like him have poisoned the investment well. Thanks to his despicable actions, the SEC's giving him a free pass and King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong's giving him a wink and a nod, two things have taken place:
First, by losing their shirts to inside traders, investors now have a lot less money to invest. Even if they want to invest, they can't; their investment capital has been soaked up by creatures like Jain.
Second, most potential investors are now totally spooked. Even those who still have some money are loath to invest. Especially when it comes to software companies. Say the word "software" and they fall to the floor and bite the carpet.
As a result, companies like mine can't get backing. In a capitalist economy, you need capital. If people are afraid they'll be fleeced, they'll hang on to every cent, and who can blame them?
It will be decades before the country really recovers. Considering the lives they have ruined and the damage they have done, the whole lot ought to be taken down to Pioneer Square and publicly flogged.
— Tom LaBelle, principal and CEO, Clarion Software Inc., Snohomish
Who's your broker?
Right now I have 200 shares of InfoSpace, 100 purchased at $5 per share and 100 purchased at $8.50 per share. Since it is currently selling for around $42 per share, that ain't exactly "chopped liver. "
Over the past few years I have made a ton of money buying and selling InfoSpace stock. I have considered it one of my best investments ever!
— Bill Kyle, Auburn
Is justice served cold?
The sordid story of Naveen Jain has me wondering what kind of travesty is afoot when a business owner and keeper of the public trust illegally disseminates company information, commits securities fraud as well as insider trading — in short, causes an almost single-handed loss of millions of investors' billions — and his only punishment is the relative hand-slap of a fine? In the same society that put Martha Stewart in jail for one stock-trading lie?!
— Andrea Driessen, Seattle
Is company put at ease?
InfoSpace Chairman Naveen Jain lies and basically steals $500 million and gets away with it. Plus his buddies steal and lie and get away with hundreds of millions more. And yet nothing happens to them. Plus Jain says when the time is right, he will consider taking his new company public, too. Investors beware.
Enron Chairman Ken Lay and his cronies steal millions of dollars and put tens of thousands of people out of work. And nothing happens to them.
I guess to avoid jail, Martha Stewart should have ruined her company and put everyone out of work.
— Charles Penk, Renton
Are the books overcooked?
The same greed that drove InfoSpace to cook its books is the same greed that drove these investors to believe that it makes sense that a stock valued at $25 a share in December of 1998 was worth $1,305 in a little more than two years. Come on, people. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
— Steve Bird, Seattle
The final score
After reading of the enormous gains reaped by Rick Neuheisel and Naveen Jain of InfoSpace, there is one inescapable conclusion: crime does indeed pay.
— Paul Budlong, Ballard |
