[Wheee The People]

What a pantload article. If they can't do the time, don't do the crime.

[dirtboy]

The flip side is, a lot of white-collar crime has the ability to impact thousands of people economically. If someone steals my car, it affects only me and I have insurance for it. But if a crooked CEO tanks a stock that I own, me and thousands of others are out millions of total dollars with little recourse for recovering that money.

[Rutles4Ever]

I think these prison terms are out of step with the crimes. A far more effective punishment would be twenty-four years of wage garnishment into a general fund for restitution purposes...... Talk about hitting them where it hurts... Subsidized housing... gub'ment cheese...

[Thoro]

It's scary stuff, enough to coerce folks under suspicion to cop a plea. That's exactly what Olis' colleagues did, including his boss, and they're getting no more than five years. Demand a day in court, or just be a chief executive with no one higher up to snitch on, and you risk rotting away.

Or if you stick to the ethics of good business, you wouldn't have found yourself in the position of worrying about needing someone higher up to snitch on.

I'm sorry, I just feel no sympathy for this crowd. They knew what they were doing, they knew it was unethical, and they knew the long-term effects on the market/shareholders.

[thoughtomator]

If they were treated like drug traffickers, they'd have all their assets confiscated before the trial, so they can consider themselves lucky in the modern USA that ignores the 4th/5th/8th Amendments. For the gravity of the crimes committed, the sentences seem appropriate.

We need to clear all the pot smokers out of jail and put child molestors there in their place. That's the current problem with sentencing, not any grief that the white-collar crowd might experience. For them, a fear of getting caught and suffering a major punishment is healthy.

[drypowder]

The death penalty for premeditated murder is in place as a deterrent. Property confiscation of drug dealers is in place as a deterrent. This is a good thing. 25 to 30 year prison sentences for white collar crime may also be a deterrent but in conjunction, the convicted white collar criminals should also lose all of their ill conceived wealth.

[Mr. Bird]

How much of the financial chicanery is a result of complicated tax laws and regulations? It seems that a lot of the incidents of mischief revolve around misreporting or misrepresenting basic economic facts. Booking a loan as revenue? That's just a flat out lie.

But there are all sorts of "standard" practices involving depreciation, carryover, etc. that are strictly inventions of the tax code. Seems to me that a company should be able to report out its income and expenditures pretty easily. Would that make cheating more difficult?

I'm not a lawyer or accountant. It just seems like corporate finance has turned into something it need not be.

[Smogger]

Prison should be for dangerous people. BS sentencing laws like these are why we have to let murderers, rapist, and other violent criminals out of prison early to make room for people that, while no means choir boys, do not pose the same threat to society.

Draconian sentences are no deterrent to crime since criminals do not believe that they will be caught. They should be reserved for people to dangerous to be on the street.

[Southern62]

Modern Day robber-barons...

[proxy_user]

Awww, the heck with it!

Paging Mr. Draco, are you there? Where are the tough guys when we need them?

OK:

"State Legislature Authorizes Execution for All over 18"

There we go....

[KeyLargo]

"...1) The US Chamber of Commerce says that losses from employee embezzlement may be as high as $20 billion to $40 billion annually. These figures place employee theft at a larger amount than burglary, car theft, robbery, and larceny combined. This estimate is slightly higher than the estimate of employee theft by the Bureau of National Affairs, which places the total at between $15 billion and $25 billion annually.

2) The FBI and other federal agencies have estimated total US fraud losses are between $60 billion and $200 billion annually.

3) In the aftermath of the savings and loan failures, studies found that criminal fraud had been perpetrated in 60 percent of all S @ Ls seized by the government.

4) The Federal Trade Commission and the Health Insurance Association of America estimate that fraud comprises 10 percent of the nation’s health care bill. By 1989, this translated to $60 billion, in 1990 to about $67 billion; by the end of the 1990’s, fraudulent charges may cost the nation over $160 billion a year…. 20 percent of all medical procedures are unnecessary. The total cost of such waste is estimated at $132 billion per year.

5) Thirty percent of all business failures are caused by white-collar crime. Crime against small companies accounts for 80 percent of all crimes against business.

6) Studies have shown that 3 out of 10 workers look for ways to steal, another 3 out of 10 will steal if given the opportunity, and 4 out of 10 will usually be honest.

7) Forty-five of the nation’s 100 largest defense contractors have been investigated for overbilling the federal government. Companies such as General Electric, Boeing, Rockwell International, Sperry Corporations, and McDonnel Douglas have allegedly submitted false work time cards, altered time cards without employees’ knowledge, charged labor costs to wrong contracts, and billed the government for perks for corporate executives, including country club memberships and even tickets to the Metropolitan Opera...."

Go to: http://www.quodlibet.net/skeen-fraud.shtml