According to legend when former CEO Jeffrey Skilling was interviewed for Harvard Business School and he was asked if he was smart he replied: "I'm fucking smart". His legendary intelligence seemed to ebb a bit during his trial when he claimed he wasn't smart enough to pull off what he was accused of. In his own words he was, however, "absolutely innocent".
The jury didn't agree. Yesterday he was sentenced to twenty four well deserved years. He also has to forfeit around 45 million USD that will be distributed to his victims. (If his wife is lucky he'll die before his appeal is completed and she'll get to keep the money just like poor little Linda "We've Lost Everything" Lay.) Reaction to the sentence was mixed; the twenty four years being the second longest issued for white collar crime (Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom fame holds that honour). Sam Buell, a former Enron prosecutor told the Guardian:
The jury didn't agree. Yesterday he was sentenced to twenty four well deserved years. He also has to forfeit around 45 million USD that will be distributed to his victims. (If his wife is lucky he'll die before his appeal is completed and she'll get to keep the money just like poor little Linda "We've Lost Everything" Lay.) Reaction to the sentence was mixed; the twenty four years being the second longest issued for white collar crime (Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom fame holds that honour). Sam Buell, a former Enron prosecutor told the Guardian:
"Maybe the pendulum has swung too far now in the opposite direction," he told the Guardian. "When you start talking about 24 years for white-collar fraud, there's not a lot of room above that for violent crime."
I think Mr. Buell is wrong in that regard. The impact of this crime, the ruination of the finances of tens of thousands of innocent people, goes far beyond the impact of most crimes of violence and therefore is worthy of a sentence of this duration or longer. One wonders if Mr. Buell expresses the same sentiments every time someone gets life imprisonment for shoplifting or possession of a couple of joints under the absurd and abusive three strikes laws.
In any case Jeffrey we won't miss ya!
In any case Jeffrey we won't miss ya!
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