September 26, 2006
From the desk of Jane Galt:This just in
Fastow gets six years, not ten:
Andrew Fastow, the mastermind behind financial schemes that doomed Enron Corp., was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison by a judge who felt he deserved a more lenient term than the decade he had agreed to accept in a plea bargain.Posted by Jane Galt at September 26, 2006 4:53 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links"); ?>Fastow, the former chief financial officer who cooperated with prosecutors in other cases related to Enron's 2001 implosion, had agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term when he pleaded guilty in 2004.
But the judge said he deserved a lighter sentence because Fastow has been persecuted after Enron's failure and because his family has suffered enough.
Just for some perspective. In six years his children will be 16 and 13. Prison sucks, even if it isn't Federal Pound Me In The *ss Prison.
Posted by: Retief on September 26, 2006 6:49 PMAccording to the article, Fastow also surrendered "$30 million in cash and property" during some stage of the trial. He also demonstrated evidence of remorse. Those factors probably figure into the sentencing leniency somewhere.
Posted by: anony-mouse on September 26, 2006 8:33 PMI suppose rape is really the wrong punishment for securities law violations. Somehow it strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment. But if creative punishments are again in vogue, several traditional punishments recommend themselves. The most common one, used in the court of Nebacanessar as well as by Genghis Khan and Constantine Porphyrigenitus was to obtain the bad guys weight in gold, melt it, an pore it down his throat.
In some cases the molten gold was administered as an enema but most contemporaries felt that was crude and tasteless.
Most importantly this punishment was carried out at the order of the king or whatever, and executed by the king's man. No wishy washy deniability. Just a simple way of saying "don't f~ with me!"
BTW, it was slow acting and always fatal and the king always got his gold back plus any gold fillings or gold teeth that the bad guy had.
On a note completely unrelated to the sentencing or to Fastow or even to Enron, what's wrong with using the word "pled"? "Pleaded" tells me that the writer doesn't know simple English.
What next, "swimmed"? "Writed"? "Eated"?
Grrrrr.
Posted by: Jason Bontrager on September 27, 2006 10:18 AMLegal doesn't make it right.
Not that my opinion on the matter will affect anything, but it does sound really stupid and illiterate to me.
Posted by: Jason Bontrager on September 27, 2006 4:43 PMWell, we say things like "hanged" and "Comes now the Plaintiff," etc. Also we use words like "movant" and "obligee" that you won't find in your average spell-check.
Boo-freakin'-hoo for you. When I did physics we used words like "spinor" that you probably didn't approve of, either.
Posted by: Rob Lyman on September 27, 2006 4:51 PMNot that my opinion on the matter will affect anything, but it does sound really stupid and illiterate to me
You should read more books, I guess. "Pleaded" is standard English and has been for centuries. "Pled" is just a shortening of it that is easier to say.
What next, "swimmed"? "Writed"? "Eated"?
Out of curiousity, which do you say -- "needed", or "ned"? :)
Posted by: Dan on September 27, 2006 10:30 PMFrom episode 134 (http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheInvitations.htm):
Jerry: More cereal? that's your third bowl today, you had it for breakfast and lunch.
Jeannie: Hey! So what's the deal with brunch , I mean that if it's a combination of breakfast and lunch.
How comes there's no lupper or no linner.
Posted by: J on September 28, 2006 8:16 AMI suppose rape is really the wrong punishment for securities law violations. Somehow it strikes me as cruel and unusual punishment.
Cruel and unusual punishment is an intriguing idea.
I propose we have him work off the debt at minimum wage in a McDonalds. Just give him enough chain to walk between a bunk out the back, the grill and the chip fryer.
Posted by: Chris Mann on September 28, 2006 9:19 AM"Hanged" is correct when it means "by the neck until dead." Not for hanging a shirt on the clothes line--that's "hung."
Posted by: lee on September 28, 2006 10:27 AMCalifornia AG Bill Lockyer was looking forward to Ken Lay being anally raped in prison. Lay's heart attack spoiled Lockyer's fun.
Posted by: shamus on September 30, 2006 8:21 PMshamus,
That was the whole idea. Alright, now back to the Aruban beach for afternoon martinis.
Posted by: Ken Lay on October 2, 2006 1:16 PMComments are Closed.