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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Persecuted and scapegoated

Andrew Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, received a 6-year prison sentence today for his role in the 2001 demise of the energy company.

Fastow's sentence had been limited to no more than 10 years in prison as part of his plea agreement to testify in the trial against Enron top executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt had the option to shorten that sentence.

Hoyt said he showed mercy for several reasons, including that Fastow had provided help to the shareholders; that Fastow was persecuted and scapegoated after Enron collapsed; and because of the suffering Fastow's family endured, specifically pointing to the fact that his wife went to jail.

"The family had take a particularly acrimonious hit," Hoyt said. Houston Chronicle, September 26, 2006
Lea Fastow pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of willfully delivering a joint 2000 tax form reporting more than $48 million in income to the Internal Revenue Service, even though she knew portions of the return were fraudulent. She admitted lying about ill-gotten income from an Enron side deal by disguising the money as gifts. - Houston Chronicle, December 19, 2005
Funny how merely executing a devious and gigantic fraud sustained over the course of years will get you persecuted in some quarters.

By the same standard, Eichmann was persecuted and scapegoated. Oh, yeah, his poor blameless wife. Given that the main reason Fastow cooperated in the first place was likely to spare her the possibility of doing serious federal time, citing her incarceration as a key factor meriting leniency seems circular. Or maybe the prosecutorial tactic of threatening Lea Fastow with criminal charges on which she could be convicted was part of the "persecution."


posted at 1:30 PM

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