There is no justice in the world. While there are people doing life sentences (three strikes and you’re out) for stealing hubcaps in California, one of the five core figures in business crimes which shook the American economy gets six years of minimum security. The judge even knocked time off of the plea-bargain his lawyers had made.
Andrew Fastow, who helped engineer the financial trickery that sank Enron Corp and then helped convict his former bosses in the scandal, had four years knocked off the plea deal he made, receiving a six-year sentence instead.
US District Judge Ken Hoyt said the 44-year-old former Enron chief financial officer had given “exceptional” assistance to prosecutors, had pledged to help victims and had shown remorse, and his wife had gone to prison for a year….
Judge Hoyt imposed no fine and recommended a minimum-security prison for Fastow.
Enron’s crash caused investors to lose billions and cost thousands of employees their jobs and retirement savings.
No fine!
Unbelievable.
This means Andrew Fastow should be out on the street within two and a half years. Perhaps he will even have weekends out.
The Enron men should be going away for twenty years and up. Business leaders need some clear signals from the criminal justice system that their misdeeds will not go unpunished.
How can we expect honesty and diligence from:
- ordinary people
- small business owners
- employees
- politicians
when every day they see the rewards for crime.
On the other hand, a mass murderer and an election thief is allowed to stay in The White House and continue to menace the world and hold up peace in the Middle East.
We are entering a Modern Dark Ages, a latter day feudalism. There is one set of laws for hereditary lords and another for the common folk.
Any such system degenerates quickly enough into mass bloodshed and disintegration. It is the opposite of a merit-based system. It is the opposite of fairness. Such a system encourages sycophancy and corruption. Third-world nepotism makes it into the big leagues.
Frankly, these are not the rules of the game which I would wish on my children and grandchildren. Or yours.