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July 13, 2005
Ebbers receives an effective life sentence
Former WorldCom CEO 63 year old Bernard J. Ebbers received a 25 year sentence for his conviction on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy and seven counts of filing false reports with regulators relating to an a multi-billion accounting fraud that resulted in the bankruptcy of WorldCom. Here are the previous posts on the Ebbers case.
Meanwhile, former mid-level Dynegy executive Jamie Olis continues to serve a 24 year sentence even though the market loss (if any) attibutable to the accounting project on which he worked is a fraction of that which occurred in regard to WorldCom. Indeed, Mr. Olis continues to serve his sentence despite the fact that the prosecution's market loss argument in his case contradicted the Justice Department's position on market loss that the U.S. Supreme Court adopted in Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo. Similarly, the government continues to defend an appeal of Frank Quattrone's conviction for witness tampering even after the Supreme Court strikes down Arthur Andersen's conviction on the same charges under similar circumstances.
Finally, Daniel Bayly is scheduled to report to prison tomorrow and William Fuhs will likely do so in the near future, while Theodore Sihpol goes home (at least for the time being), John and Timothy Rigas are allowed to remain free pending appeal of their convictions for looting their company, Richard Scrushy continues teaching his Sunday school class, and Gary Winnick counts his millions.
Folks, these highly disparate results are not the product of a rational deployment of our criminal justice system. And as Professor Ribstein points out, the Ebbers sentence is worse than any wron rX镉0rRH W1 W uW㬐W㬐W㰐W & & j/ 0 : : $ D A T A ments_form" onsubmit="if (this.bakecookie[0].checked) rememberMe(this)" ID="Form1">
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