May 27, 2006
TREATING CRIMINALS LIKE CRIMINALS:
Tough Justice for Executives in Enron Era (KURT EICHENWALD and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO, 5/27/06, NY Times)
The tactics and strategies used in the successful prosecution of the former Enron chief executives, Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay, highlight the transformation that has occurred in recent years in the investigation and prosecution of white-collar crime, a change that has brought many of the techniques applied to drug cases and mob prosecutions into the once-genteel legal world of corporate wrongdoers.No longer are defendants allowed to surrender themselves quietly, outside the view of the press. Now, as Mr. Skilling and Mr. Lay learned firsthand, there are "perp walks" where the handcuffed defendant is brought in by law enforcement for booking. Cases are not resolved with a fine or a short stay in a "country club" prison; now defendants face decades of real jail time, sentences that can preclude them from being considered for minimum-security prisons.
Witnesses are squeezed, with threats against family members and stints in solitary confinement. Those who fail to cooperate are indicted, or deemed unindicted co-conspirators, a designation that places potential witnesses in a state of indefinite legal limbo. And companies that want to settle a criminal case can often do so only by taking the once unusual step of waiving their right to protect the confidentiality of their communications with their lawyers. [...]
Legal experts yesterday heralded such aggressive approaches as crucial to the government's securing convictions of Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling. "Prosecutors in white-collar cases are looking at the range of legal tactics that are available to them that they have used for years in other kinds of cases, and they are not just ruling out those tactics because it is a white-collar case," said Christopher Wray, the former head of the Justice Department's criminal division and now head of the government investigations practice at the law firm of King & Spalding.
The reality is that they did more harm to society than most of the 2 million guys we already have behind bars. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2006 8:33 AM
Be that as it may, this is one more instance of a growing trend toward goat-spiritedness in the legal establishment: aggressive prosecutions & suing, unlimited tactics to "get" the opponent. These same tactics can be used to extract settlements or confessions from innocent parties, or false testimony from witnesses.
Posted by: pj at May 27, 2006 10:12 AMI thought this started during the Reagan Administration under Rudy Guiliani, and was relaxed during the Clinton period, because anyone making money and (supposedly) growing the economy during a Democratic administration who's not named Bill Gates can't be that bad.
Posted by: John at May 27, 2006 11:10 AMPerhaps, but neither they nor the two million guys are anywhere near as harmful to society as those cryptofascist Christers. We're sure you'll understand when your prosecutor breaks out the thumbscrews, Orrin. There's always a next turn of the crank.
Posted by: joe shropshire at May 27, 2006 12:22 PMjoe:
The fascists get to run things in our Puritan Nation--that's why there are so many people in jail.
Posted by: oj at May 27, 2006 3:51 PMYes, and there's nobody more fun to persecute than the guy who liked to run his mouth when he was on top, especially if he can't shut his mouth once in the dock. I'm quite looking forward to reading the transcript of your testimony.
Posted by: joe shropshire at May 27, 2006 4:08 PMI'm a straight male WASP--we're always on top.
Posted by: oj at May 27, 2006 4:12 PMThat's just what Ken Lay thought.
Posted by: joe shropshire at May 27, 2006 4:54 PMHe was a crook--we hate croks.
Posted by: oj at May 27, 2006 5:58 PMEverybody's a crook, or can be made into one. Nothing's easier.
Posted by: joe shropshire at May 27, 2006 6:08 PMOh, come on. Skilling is a world-class a**hole, but those two guys generated a lot of wealth for a lot of people (not all of it lost, BTW) by providing an essential service. Wholesale power brokers like ENRON may have "gouged" consumers, but they also got the electricity from low value markets to high value markets during a period of spot shortages. By the standards of their prosecution, most of our industrial titans, including Thomas Edison, should have been thrown in jail. The trial should have been held in Salem.
(Fastow's another matter.)
Which is why it's good to always be the cop.
Posted by: oj at May 27, 2006 6:13 PMDrug kingpins generate a lot of wealth. We disapprove of them morally so we send them to prison.
Posted by: oj at May 27, 2006 6:20 PMAgree with the last part. Their goose was cooked from the git-go. Ergo: the Salem morality play.("They turned me into a newt!")
Which reminds me. Notice how the MSM is trying to link the "scandal" on the Bush Era. They'll get away with that crap, too. Just like blaming Nixon for Vietnam.
Posted by: ghostcat at May 27, 2006 6:34 PMJust read at the The Ace of Spades HQ that CBS referred to Rep. Jefferson as a Lousisiana Republican.
Posted by: erp at May 27, 2006 6:58 PMSkilling and Lay deserve what they've got coming. They did a lot of damage and at the most basic level it's simply not believable that they didn't know that something was hinky. Just for giving Congress the excuse to pass Sarbanes/Oxley they should roast in hell for ever.
Posted by: David Cohen at May 29, 2006 12:24 AM