Home Contact Us Sitemap Tell a Friend Search:   Blog Sign In to Vote Volunteer   Home >  Blog >  Blog Details Visits: 50775      Back to Blog  Free Forbes, Ebbers and Skilling This past week's news reports about former CUC Chief Executive Officer Walter Forbes' conviction and sentencing to prison for 12 years and 7 months reprises recognition of a flaw that permeates literally every aspect of our judicial system: jurisprudent myopia. How could a judge, jury and the defendant's defense lawyers miss such an obvious defense -- an oversight that, for all intents and purposes, resulted in what amounts to a life sentence for these three scofflaws? A CEO’s duties are more esoteric than any other post because his/her primary responsibility is to provide a corporate vision, create the corporate culture, and manage the values of the corporation by overseeing, and occasionally guiding, all below him/her on the organizational chart. The moment the CEO attempts to engage in a particular corporate function, he/she can become immersed in the detail and minutiae of that activity to the point of losing sight of the “big picture.” This is tantamount to a football coach attempting observe the flow of play while playing the offensive and defensive center position (we know where their head would be most of the time). So, of necessity, a CEO must trust the details to his or her management team. The larger the company the more likely they are, as human beings, to be overwhelmed by the daily flow of detail and documentation that crosses their desk every day. I've been a CEO of a number of small companies and I can tell you from experience that, even at my level, keeping track of everything was like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. While there is no doubt that these three men were guilty, the question is, "Of what?" Were they guilty of negligence, sloppiness, poor leadership, recklessness and hubris? Did their egregious behavior hurt a lot of people? Absolutely but so did the Leveraged Buyout pirates who bought companies, raided their pension plans, sold off corporate assets and, in the process, erased hundreds of thousands of jobs not for reasons of synergy but, rather, for the personal enrichment of themselves and a handful of cronies outside the target company. While reprehensible, the last time I checked, none of these traits or actions are jailing offenses -- certainly not life sentences. Should their assets be seized through the civil courts? Should they be publicly ostracized and prevented from ever managing any company, public or private? Absolutely. What sticks in my throat is that the criminal court system never should have been involved. The reason it became involved had more to do with political grandstanding than with bringing justice to the people who were harmed. Does anyone think that any of these three Chiefs would have knowingly put themselves in jeopardy of being incarcerated in the rape and drug ravaged cesspool we call our prison system? So, the "$64,000 Question" is, "What were their respective defense counsels thinking? After the first couple of convictions, how did Walter Forbe's counsel not see the wisdom is taking the initiative away from the prosecutors by admitting, up front, that their client was a major stinker? What were the judges thinking when they permitted these show trials to suck up tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in legal costs that could have gone to injured investors and employees? The most egregious acts were not committed by these three scofflaws. The real "bad guys" were the accountants who charged millions of dollars to do a lousy job; the lawyers who ill-advised their clients because an early admission of guilt would have cost 5% of what they eventually reaped in fees; unsophisticated juries; and the judges who presided, unthinkingly, over this entire farce. What good will come from all of this for the shareholders, what possible rehabilitation of these men, what deterrent lesson has been learned by all those who have or will accept the mantle of CEO? I say, free these men, make them pay for the rest of their lives, make them feel what it is like to live without true financial security. And, after swearing that they have turned over all of their assets via the CIVIL court system, if any of them subsequently pull hidden money out of a rabbit hole, then jail them for perjury. As for any acts that they may have committed trying to defend themselves once they were accused (e.g. ala Martha Stewart being convicted, not for stock trading but for lying to investigators) pardon those acts as a natural defense to an unfair and improper prosecution. Tell me, what do you think? Posted by ..:: GregO ::.. at    01/20/2007   20:21:30 1 Comments  Tell a Friend |  Comment   About Me GregO's Blog Location: New Canaan, CT USA View my complete profile Links Google News Yahoo News CNN News Archives November 2006 October 2006 December 2006 January 2007 Prev Month's Posts Killing Al-Qaeda and Other Fantasies Stand up, Speak out, or its gonna get a lot worse!   RSS Feeds     Instructions     ©2006-07 DayLight Forum. All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions Home  |  DayLight HeatMap  |  XHTML  |  CSS