maarmie's musings

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Guilty, guilty, guilty

The verdicts are in, and Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay (remember a little company called Enron?) are guilty, guilty, guilty. Skilling, who got out while the getting out was good and tried to dump all his stock while encouraging others to buy, has been found guilty of 19 of the 28 charges against him including fraud and conspiracy. He seems to be the big scapegoat in the scandal since Andrew Fastow cooperated with the feds, pled guilty and testified against the two. Lay has been found guilty of six of six charges.

Each charge carries a sentence of 5 to 10 years in federal prison, but I've heard that in white collar cases, sentencing guidelines aren't stringent. That means they could still walk away with the proverbial slap on the wrist. I hope they are held up as examples and severely flogged by the justice system and by the employees whose lives they ruined because of their all-consuming greed.

The talk of the town is that Skilling, at least, will likely be screwed when appeal time comes because, by being found guilty of only 19 of the 28 charges against him, it appears the jurors really thought about the evidence and the charges and didn't just vote guilty across the board. Is it just me or do the legal analysis people on CNN seem to be smiling a little too broadly and too often when speaking of the verdict?

I'm guessing Skilling will spend the rest of his life in prison and that Lay will get between 25 and 40 years. Of course Fastow, who was the guiltiest of the bunch by far, will get a much lighter sentence for cooperating with the government. Say it with me, folks. C is for cooperation.

I guess kindergarten DOES teach people some things that are useful for life - and to avoid life behind bars.

2 comments:

Annie said...

I wish there were some way the folks who lost their pensions could recoup from these two!

maarmie said...

Don't we all!