I suppose this shows a lack of Christian charity on my part, but I think Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling deserve to go to prison for a long, long time.
Or maybe I’m just grumpy this week on account of the weather... Nah.
It is in the hands of the jury now, and there is no guarantee that they will be found guilty at all. The HealthSouth CEO was able to beat the rap against all expectations, so you never know. You never can tell what a jury will do.
Just speaking personally, this Enron company had a pretty big impact on my life. Their massive lobbying campaign to push for nationwide deregulation of the electricity industry (which has had no positive impact for the average consumer, and caused absolute havoc in California) caused my job to get outsourced, their financial meltdown put a big dent in my savings portfolio, and their lying and connivance with the Andersen auditors means I have to spend endless hours writing documentation to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. This is all nothing, however, to what they did to ruin the lives of a lot of people, not the least of whom were their own employees. I mean they really, REALLY ruined some people’s lives.
Yes, they should go away for a long time, and not to some cream-puff CEO country-club prison. If they are found guilty, is secure-max (with Zacharias Moussaoui) unfair to ask for?
3 comments:
I have to agree with you. I am not big on the idea of brutal prisons, but the worst thing is the unfairness of the whole thing. An inner-city black kid can get busted for selling grass and end up in a hellish place where they will be turned into a truly vicious criminal, but corporate criminals like Lay and Skilling, whose crimes affected so many more people will get a tap on the wrist and then come out and write best-selling books. It makes my angry.
Liam,
Yes, money makes all the difference. I was talking about this with a guy at work, and he was thinking that they were in big trouble due to the fact that the trial is being held in Houston. He figured tose Texans would be in a "hangin' mood". I don't know. "Kenny-boy" had a lot of friends down there in Texas. I guess it all depends on how betrayed they feel. We'll see.
One of these days I'm going to have to check out that documentary about the Enron rise and fall, 'The Smartest Guys in the Room'.
Guilty.
Now the sentencing and appeals...
Post a Comment