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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
Another Angry Mob
The Fifth Circuit's decision yesterday reminded us of the angry mob that lynched Jeff Skilling. Now, as this timely Roger Parloff/Fortune article notes, an even larger mob is gathering to lynch the businesspeople who were attempting to save their...
The subprime mortgage criminal lottery
Well, well, well. Look who is resurfacing in connection with the creation of the Justice Department's latest criminal Task Force to investigate whether crimes were committed when the subprime-mortgage market collapsed (just what we need -- another corporate crime...
What is Reyes being sentenced for again?
Following on this post from last week that pointed out the illusory nature of the financial damages attributed to former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes' backdating of stock options, the W$J's Holman Jenkins -- who has been the most lucid mainstream...
Backdating options -- the scandal within a non-scandal
As noted earlier here, the mainstream media-driven scandal over the fairly common practice of backdating stock options has been more about demonizing the unlucky businesspeople who engaged in the practice more than anything else. Inasmuch as there is nothing inherently...
The next business prosecution
With the Conrad Black trial winding down in Chicago, it's about time for another dubious prosecution of a businessman, this time former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes, who is the first executive to be prosecuted for fraud in connection with backdating...
Applying the Apple Rule
My, what a flurry of activity with regard to Apple. First, the San Jose Mercury News reports last weekend that Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared to be in the clear of the risk of criminal charges in regard to the...
But what about the Apple Rule?
So, one of the two Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prizes this year is for the WSJ's reporting on the backdating of options scandal that has snared hundreds of companies and executives over the past year. Frankly, I've been more impressed...
Refining the Apple Rule
Matthew Bishop of The Economist, who has been writing recently on imposition of ill-advised regulation on business, has come up with a refinement to Larry Ribstein's Apple Rule (see also here) -- i.e., the exception from corporate criminal liability for...
Rabinowitz on the mob in the Duke lacrosse team case
I've written frequently about how a mob mentality took hold in a case familiar to Houstonians and led to a grave injustice for a large number of businesspersons, particularly two men and their families (examples here, here and here). The...
The Nardelli paycheck
Last week, this post noted Henry G. Manne's op-ed regarding the myth of shareholder democracy being some sort of panacea to all sorts of corporate agency cost problems. As if on cue, Professor Manne's op-ed was followed by Home Depot's...
Uncommon common sense to close out the year
Several items making uncommonly good sense in financial matters caught my eye on the final day of the year. First, Don Boudreaux noticed the following letter to the Financial Times from Larry Ribstein's colleague at the University of Illinois College...
Is the backdating options scandal "the Enron of 2006?"
Yes, in an observation made yesterday during a Senate committee hearing that should send shivers up the spine of anyone concerned about the increasing criminalization of business in the United States, that's how Senator Robert Menendez (N.J. Dem) characterized the...
Throw them all in the clink
As noted earlier here and here, the practice of backdating stock options is fundamentally a disclosure issue. However, that has not stopped federal prosecutors from criminalizing the practice as new indictments are now announced almost daily. In this typically lucid...
Sending bad messages
It's hard to imagine that the federal government could have sent worse signals to foreign investors in US markets and businesses than the ones that it sent over the past week. First, there was the latest news about the NatWest...
What's driving the latest business scandal?
As noted in this previous post, the mining of claims in regard to the widespread corporate practice of backdating options as a method of executive compensation is in full gear despite the relatively straightforward nature of the legal issues related...
Understanding the next business scandal
Covering local business scandals and all, there has not been much time to address certain regulators and media members' attempts to make the apparent widespread practice of backdating stock options (see this WSJ ($) chart of companies that engaged in...
Lay-Skilling, Week Twelve
The Jeff Skilling segment of the corporate criminal trial of the decade concluded during Week Twelve (prior week summaries are here) as the former Enron CEO testified for a bit over three days on cross-examination from Enron Task Force director...
Sam Wyly v. Ernst & Young
Colorful Dallas-based software entrepreneur Sam Wyly, who headed Sterling Software Inc. when it was sold to Computer Associates International Inc. in March 2000 in a $4 billion transaction, has filed an $80 million lawsuit in state district court in Dallas...
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