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To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (21130)	7/10/2002 7:46:28 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 74559

Senate OKs New Corporate Fraud Rules Wed Jul 10, 5:43 PM ET By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A unified Senate approved harsh new penalties Wednesday for corporate fraud and document shredding, insisting on enforcement teeth to back President Bush ( news - web sites)'s plan to curb a wave of accounting scandals. The vote was 97-0 to add the penalties to an accounting oversight bill moving toward Senate passage against a backdrop of eroded public confidence in corporate America. Underscoring that sentiment, the Dow Jones industrials lost more than 280 points and closed below 9,000 for the first time since October on Wednesday, a day after Bush's speech on corporate responsibility aimed at shoring up investor confidence. A stream of revelations of accounting misdeeds at big corporations in recent months has scared investors and prompted concern about the fragile economic recovery. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off — 17,000 at WorldCom Inc. alone — and millions of people have lost retirement savings, putting Bush and his Republican Party on the defensive with congressional elections approaching. The criminal penalty measure, written by Senate Judiciary Committee ( news - web sites) Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would create new 10-year prison terms for securities fraud and give federal protection to company whistle-blowers. "These people deserve to go to jail. They've ruined the lives of thousands of people," Leahy declared on the Senate floor, pointing to executive excesses at Enron Corp., WorldCom and other big corporations. Democrats said they wanted tougher penalties than those Bush proposed in his speech Tuesday. Bush, who traveled to Wall Street to deliver the speech, called for doubled prison terms and aggressive policing to stem fraud and corruption in scandal-tarred corporate America, promising to do "everything in our power to end the days of cooking the books." Most of Bush's proposals don't call for new laws; many just urge companies and executives to adopt them. Bush has given only qualified support to the bipartisan accounting bill, which would create an independent private body with authority to discipline auditors and establish auditing and ethics rules. "I don't think the president or the administration gets what this is really about," Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., said before Wednesday's vote. The need for the legislation "goes way beyond Enron, goes way beyond WorldCom," he said. "The American investing public has lost its confidence in this corporate system." As the bill inched toward passage, Bush told legislative leaders he was sure "that Congress will be able to get this done," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) said. Bush also stressed "the importance of working together to do it," Fleischer said. But he said it was still too soon for Bush to commit to signing the legislation. If the Senate passes the bill, possibly this week, the measure still would have to be reconciled with a version that passed the Republican-led House in April. That measure has been criticized by consumer groups and some Democrats as too weak to bolster investor confidence. Earlier Wednesday, the Senate rejected on a 55-43 vote a Republican amendment that would have required top labor union officials to certify the accuracy of unions' financial statements in the same way the government is now requiring chief executives of big corporations to do. The measure's sponsor, Sen. Mitch McConnell ( news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., decried what he called "the pervasiveness of union corruption." Republicans have long bristled at the substantial campaign contributions flowing from unions to the Democratic Party. The overall legislation also would limit the consulting work that accounting firms can do for their audit clients — a step fiercely opposed by the accounting industry, a major contributor to lawmakers' campaign funds. Three senators, all Republicans, did not vote on the criminal penalty measure: Mike Crapo of Idaho, Jesse Helms of North Carolina and George Voinovich of Ohio. story.news.yahoo.com.

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (21130)	7/11/2002 4:09:32 AM
From: portage	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Kerry, by levers I meant primarily private sector levers - ceos, directors, etc. had much more to do with these problems than the political blowhards. And I don't know too many joe six packs who cause entire companies to collapse - their greed is strictly amateur in comparison. On the gov't side, many of the laissez faire bills pushed by Lott, Gramm, and company helped these guys along and encouraged their raw hubris. The demos push regs that may make things less efficient, but prevent the little guy from being completely steamrolled by those with their hands on the real money. Teddy Roosevelt understood that kind of thinking. Then again, this big money bought off alot of the demos too. The demos can only wish for republicans who are half as centrist as Clinton, instead we're saddled with relics like Cheney and boneheads like Bush. Shrub is becoming frightening in his incompetence in all matters that don't have him leaning on the grizzled war machine advisors to do his thinking for him. IMO