“Until last month, lying to your own company’s lawyers was not a crime. Now it is. Defense lawyers and civil libertarians are expressing alarm at the government’s aggressive use of obstruction of justice laws in its investigation of accounting improprieties at Computer Associates, the giant software company.” Among sources of the pressure to cut a deal with prosecutors rather than fight: in March Jamie Olis, a mid-level executive at natural gas firm Dynegy, was found guilty of accounting fraud in a scheme to please Wall Street by hyping earnings and sentenced to 24 years in prison. The guy would have been a lot better off to have gunned down someone on the street instead, or even tried to grow psychedelic mushrooms (see Dec. 6). (Alex Berenson, “Case Expands Type of Lies Prosecutors Will Pursue”, New York Times, May 17)(& letter to the editor, Jun. 22).
Lie to your company’s lawyer, go to jail
“Until last month, lying to your own company’s lawyers was not a crime. Now it is. Defense lawyers and civil libertarians are expressing alarm at the government’s aggressive use of obstruction of justice laws in its investigation of accounting improprieties at Computer Associates, the giant software company.” Among sources of the pressure to cut a […]
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Classless actions
Evan Shaeffer, the nicest guy on the web pursuing a Satanic occupation, tries to defend the much maligned class action. Ted Frank, who amused me years ago with his occasional
Sentenced at Merrill Lynch
Tom Kirkendall wonders (Oct. 16) why a former energy trader who admitted that he stole $43 million from his employer, Merrill Lynch, just got a comparatively lenient sentence of 3 1/2 years, while former Merrill…
Update: Jamie Olis wins resentencing
Last year, as has been mentioned in this space (May 18, 2004, Oct. 19, 2005) a Texas judge handed down a sentence of 24 years in prison to Dynegy executive Jamie Olis, convicted by a…