Fastow and injustice

[happythoughts 0]

Fastow had a plea agreement to serve 10 years.
The judge REDUCED it to six. What the ???

He was originally charged with 90 counts. Ninety.

The Enron collapse cost $60 Billion of market value to vanish along with $2 billion of pensions.

If I held up a gas station for $12 with a gun in Florida, it is mandatory 10 years. He robbed thousands of people of their jobs and their life savings and he gets SIX years?

In his favor, the judge said that he was "cooperative".
Cooperative? It was his criminal behavior that he was discussing. He is rewarded for admitting his crimes ? Beyond the sentencing agreement ?

Quote

the judge said, he had also been the “subject of great persecution,” including anti-Semitic slurs and personal threats.

The judge said that he was "persecuted". People used racist slurs and threatened him. Awwwwww... imagine that... People called him widdle names and were mad?

Uhhh...yeah. Real mad. Real people getting really mad about real crimes. He should be called every name available.

How dare they get mad?

Maybe 2 years with time off for good behavior.
In minimum security Fed prison. Playing tennis in the afternoons. Think he can find a good coach and finally get that two-handed backhand problem fixed before his release ?

However, the people that he destroyed will not retire with millions in the bank. They will work an additional 20 years to try to salvage their lives.

The more I think about this, the madder I get.

The inmates have taken over the asylum.

[Lucky... 0]

I think Bush will pardon some/all Enron scum anyway, that's why that one douchebag checked in today, he has 25 years. Ken Lay died - yea right, what sweet timing; that SOB is laying on a beach somewhere.

[freeflir29 0]

Your baseless, blind political hatred of Bush would be laughable if it weren't so sad.


http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons0a.htm


From that article.........




"How many pardons did President Clinton give during his two terms?

In total, President Clinton issued 456 executive clemency orders - 395 pardons and 61 commutations - between 1993 and January 20, 2001. The vast majority were issued in the last three years of his presidency - 176 (140 pardons, 36 commutations) were issued on his last day in office.


Who did previous Presidents pardon, and how many pardons did they issue?

Given the unlimited range of discretion provided in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, previous Presidents have pardoned reprobates, political allies, wrongly-convicted persons, friends, contributors and outright rebels. For individual pardons by particular Presidents, see Notable Pardons. Of the all-but-two Presidents who granted pardons between 1789 and 2001 (Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield did not live to do so), Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued the most clemency orders (3687), while George Washington issued the fewest (16). Click for a full statistical breakdown.


Is President George W. Bush likely to issue many pardons during his term?

No. For one thing, his father issued very few (77) when he was in office. For another, during his prior term as Governor of Texas, George W. issued fewer pardons than any Texas Governor since the 1940s (16 up to January 2000, as opposed to 70 for his immediate predecessor Ann Richards, 822 for 2-term governor Bill Clements, and 1048 for John Connally, Texas governor from 1963-69).

In a January 2000 interview with reporter Jay Root of the Austin Star-Telegram, Governor Bush explained that his low number of pardons "comes not from political calculation but from pardoning Steven Raney in 1995 for a 1988 marijuana conviction. A few months after being absolved of his crime, the unpaid Ellis County constable was caught stealing cocaine from a drug bust. 'That caused a complete review of the process,' Bush said. 'I have nothing against pardoning. I just haven't been very aggressive on it. There's no philosophical reason. It's just that it kind of slowed us down initially. I said, `Whoa!' because it was a pretty rough story."

If anything, the Clinton pardon controversy will make President Bush even more cautious.



But yeah..........Bush is corrupt I am sure.

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

I think Bush will pardon some/all Enron scum anyway, that's why that one douchebag checked in today, he has 25 years. Ken Lay died - yea right, what sweet timing; that SOB is laying on a beach somewhere.

Marc Rich, anyone?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Hazarrd 1]

Fastow was given a reduced sentence because of volunteer work he has done since his arrest, such as mowing the lawn... http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/09/21/yes-andy-fastow-has-mowed-the-lawn/

I don't really agree with it, but I'd rather see him serve less time than [fill in the blank].

.-.

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

Maybe 2 years with time off for good behavior.
In minimum security Fed prison. Playing tennis in the afternoons. Think he can find a good coach and finally get that two-handed backhand problem fixed before his release ?

Not so much to argue, but just a little perspective:

First, there is no parole or "time off for good behavior" in the federal criminal system. He must serve the entire sentence.

Also, it will be the bureau of prisons that decides the level of security he must serve, and minimum security is by no means guaranteed for this guy.

Having said that, minimum security is designed generally for first-offender, non-violent, non-mentally ill, non-substance abusing prisoners who the Bureau of Prisons determines are a very low risk of escape and violence against guards or other prisoners, or other institutional misconduct while serving the sentence, and also have low risks of recidivism.

Also, "playing tennis" and "country clubs" has been a popular "sound byte" descriptor for minimum security prisons ever since the Watergate defendants went to the pokey in the 70's, but it's really just sloganeering. Minimum security prisons are not Alcatraz (or Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib), and they're not breakin' rocks in a chain gang, but they are punitive confinement in a prison nonetheless, and they're by no means fun.
10 years may have been reasonable justice, but 6 years without parole is no walk in the park, either.

Also: Like it or not, it is customary to give reduced sentences on a guilty plea to only a few of all the counts in the indictment for (a) cooperation which aids in the prosecution of other co-conspirators whose prosecutions might otherwise have been much more difficult without the cooperation, and (b) a guilty plea which saves the government the time and considerable expense of preparing for, and then conducting, a 3-week jury trial.

[wmw999 2,589]

I had a friend who served 6 months in minimum security for a protest at the School of the Americas. It was probably considered even more "country club" because it was a women's prison.

It was not fun. No tennis, serious limitations on anything that could be considered freedom of choice. No, she didn't pound rocks, but she (a retired database programmer) did spend her days in the kitchen serving and setting tables. She wasn't feeling sorry for herself when she said that; she knew what was going to happen when she protested.

As far as I can tell, Andy Fastow is guilty as sin of all kinds of "let the little people pay" behavior. He, and many of the group, could probably give Leona Helmsley a run for her superiority complex.

But he won't be having fun. He'll have it easier, because his wife will be able to afford to travel to see him in prison, and send him (limited) books to read.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[happythoughts 0]

My perspective is this:

I seriously doubt that when he gets out in six years that he will be destitute. I am sure that he and his wife (who assisted him and did time) will be fine.

However, all the thousands of people who lost their jobs and their life savings won't. It won't be six years, it will be the next 30. They have to work for the next 30 to recover a fraction of what he will keep.

$2 billion is a lot of money. He stole it from those people. They don't get a retirement, he stole their future.

Six years is nothing. If he is unhappy or uncomfortable, that is the point of prison. Four thousand people are uncomfortable because of him.