A verdict at the scene of the crime
- Did it really make sense to try them in Houston? How could any rational trial judge think they could get a fair trial there? Tim McVeigh, you recall, was tried in Denver. I'm sure their attorney will be assigning as error the denial of the defendants' motion for a change of venue. The standard of review for such a decision is surely very high, but I assume not insurmountable.
- No one ever makes the point that most of the millions the employees lost should never have existed in the first place. The employees had received a huge windfall built upon Enron's fraudulently pumped-up stock. The employees had no scienter, of course, but it's not like Lay and Skilling robbed widows and orphans of money they had struggled to save up over decades. I'm not saying it's fun having found money taken from you, but it would be nice to see some perspective and reflection once in a while. Just occasionally I'd like to hear someone say "of course, my retirement fund never should have been worth anything close to that to begin with."
posted at 1:43 PM
2 Comments:
I think you are failing to make a distinction between losing money on an investment because of 'normal' changes in the value of a stock - a shift in the market, general downturn in business, or the business in question becoming obsolete - versus the complete destruction of company share value because of fraud. Of course that share value shouldn't have been what it was, but how can an investor tell if the share price is artificially high because of the fraudulent and criminal activities of the company? Yes, investing in stocks is a risky proposition. Yes, investing your entire retirement fund in one stock (particularly the company you work for) is a stupendously bad idea. However, why do you think they didn't defraud widows and the like of their hard earned retirement money? I know people who lost a great deal of money because of Enron and none of them worked for the company. I find it hard to believe that you expect the average investor to say something like "of course, my retirement fund never should have been worth anything close to that to begin with." We are strongly encouraged to invest in stocks either through IRA's, mutual funds or 401(k) plans. We really have no choice anymore because company pension plans are falling by the wayside with increasing frequency. How are the individual investors supposed to protect what few assets they have when companies feel free to commit accounting fraud and other types of nefarious behavior?
I was only talking about the Enron employees themselves. I just wish you would ever hear someone say something like "of course when I went to work as a natural gas pipeline worker I never dreamed I would have two million in a retirement fund." You are right that many average investors bought Enron with their hard-earned savings. I should not have implied that there weren't such people or that they weren't horribly defrauded through no fault of their own. And, of course, the employees were encouraged, generally, not to bail out of Enron during the weeks when the stock was still worth something, and there quite possibly could have been a lockout or freeze period imposed on their retirement plans during that same time.
I guess it would just make my day if one person had been quoted saying something like "easy come, easy go." :)
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