Is the Fastow punishment right?

[TXlib]

Poll question: Is the Fastow punishment right?

With regards primarily to Andy Fastow:

Bear in mind he made over $66 million from his shady Enron dealings, and his fine is $23.8 million, with a 10-year prison sentence, no parole.

[GOPisEvil]

1. It depends...is he rolling on anyone else?

10 years in the federal pen is 10 years you'll never get back. I'd say the punishment is about right. Who knows how much of that $66 million he still has; was most of it securities that lost value, or hard currency?

[TXlib]

2. We'll find out how much of the $66 million he has left...

Now that he has pleaded guilty, he'll lose all the civil suits that will be filed against him, and eventually die a pauper.

[KCDem]

5. message deleted

You change your post, I change mine.

[GOPisEvil]

6. I'm pretty sure that violates the 8th Amendment.

But then, the rest of the Bill of Rights is up in smoke...

[TXlib]

8. Yeah, I decided a second after sending that that was a touch harsh.

So I changed it to what it says now.

Less harsh, more legal.

[DUreader]

9. He should have to pay it all back

and he'' get parolled in a few years |

[TXlib]

11. I read the deal excludes parole. He'll have to serve the full 10 years.

7. I have a feeling

he's turning some people in.
When I was temping as a proofreader a couple of years ago I got to read one class action suit against Fastow regarding insider trading and it looked like they had him dead to rights on that single case. (it involved a few people avoiding losses of $75 million through a set of phone calls in a 12 hour period). That case alone looked like ten years. If I were a prosecutor reading that evidence I'd want to throw the book at him. So I'm thinking that this plea bargain is letting him off easy from their perspective & they probably are making damn sure he's testifying as part of the deal.

[Caution]

3. 10 years is a long ass time

people loste sight of this because the government has been handing out these monstrous sentences since reagan got into power.

and btw..."ram-me-in-the-ass prison" is a myth. Doesn't happen in the federal prison system. Prison rape is less common than rape in the outside world and anyone who wishes rape on someone else is a sick and twisted person.

This sentence is what it should be.

[bigwillq]

4. Fine and time are right

But with the couple are seperate jail time (they won't be in the slammer that the same time) I think is wrong. I saw a story, I think on CNN or NBC nightly news I'm not sure, with a guy who was a former Enron employee and his wife and him have to work two jobs now and their kids are raised by day care.

The Fastow's committed a crime that affected not only them but many other people. Don't give them the benefit of any doubt. They're criminals.

[R3dD0g]

10. I was reminded

of my wife's coworker.

She was sentenced to 3 yrs for multiple hot checks. Probably totaling $15K. She had 2 kids 4 & 2, no husband around.

She's doing time in the womens unit now. Kids were given over to social services.

I just wish the prosecutors had never entertained notions about the kids.

[populistmom]

12. I wonder who he pissed off to get a sentence like that?

What about Ken Lay?
As for too harsh though, no, it's not.

[Caution]

14. federal sentences

are not just arbitrarily decided upon. There is a very strict chart called the "Federal Sentencing Guidelines" which are used to determine the actual sentence. You commit fraud for X dollars, you have Y criminal history you get Z months. You cooperate with the federal investigation you get 1/3 off, 1/2 off or you get a departure from the guidelines to be determined by the judge (though the last doesnt really happen anymore thank to John Ashcroft).

My guess it that he got 1/2 off. Based on the fiure of 66 million he would get the end of the guideline which is 20+ years TBD by judge how far beyond the 20, so they knocked it down to 10 (though this 10 will only go into effect if the prosecutor deems that he has cooperated enough i the overall investigation, ie ratted enough people out).

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. It's right, but it's wrong, because it's Ken Lay who should be in jail

Not that Fastow shouldn't, either, but it's riduclous that he's going down, and ken Lay is still hanging out making enegry policy for the white house.

[Sparkle]

15. I guess it's okay but what I can't stand is the local news here

in Houston keep talking about having one of the parents available for the children. Well I say tough shit. Plenty of couples get sent up and usually relatives will take over the kids. Why are their kids so special?

[cosmicdot]

16. Krugman on "Enron and the System"

"But it would be a big mistake to conclude that the system is working.
It isn't.

For one thing, the progress in the Enron case is something of a
fluke — sort of like convicting Al Capone for income tax evasion. The charges against Mrs. Fastow don't focus on dubious corporate deals; they focus on her failure to report the personal kickbacks she received from participants in those deals. And it's still unclear whether the company's top executives will ever face charges.

More important, in political terms the statute of limitations may
already have run out. The political figures with the most direct ties
to the Enron scandal, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White and
former Senator Phil Gramm, are no longer in office. War and a rising
market have, at least for the time being, diverted attention from the
role of other political figures whose deference to corporate demands
aided and abetted Enron and other corporate malefactors."
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will these charges/punishment preclude bigger crime charges/penalties?