Friday, June 30, 2006

Forward his mail to cellblock C

Almost exactly a year ago Richard Scrushy escaped from a Birmingham courthouse with his freedom. Back then, Scrushy was acquitted of three dozen fraud and money-laundering charges related to a $2.7 billion accounting scandal at HealthSouth Corporation. Apparently the jury thought it made more sense that he hired five consecutive CFOs who were criminals instead of that maybe Scrushy was the leader of the fraud. At the time it was regarded as a "powerful blow to government efforts to prosecute executives for financial misdeeds." Oh what a difference a year makes.

Not only has Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling from Enron been fitted for orange jumpsuits but lady justice has straightened her sword and brought it down agianst Scrushy and this time it hit the mark. Former Alabama Govenor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth chief executive Richard Scrushy were convicted Thursday in of bribery, conspiracy and fraud. Siegelman, was accused of trading government favors for campaign donations when he was governor and Scrushy, who once ran the Birmingham-based rehabilitation chain, was accused of arranging $500,000 in donations to Siegelman's campaign for a state lottery in exchange for a seat on a state hospital regulatory board. The most serious of the charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Scrushy remains a defendant in major civil cases involving allegations of a $2.7 billion accounting scam at the rehabilitation chain he once ran.

Justice may be slow but it finally caught up to Richard Scrushy. Here's to small miracles.

UPDATE: Justice gives one and takes one away. Alas.

3 Comments:

Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

These people are small fry. When I see Cheney in a jump suit, I will believe in justice, but not before then.

I continue to believe that there are enough people in this country to support the kind of fascist extremism we're headed toward and I don't think we have the will or the power or the sanity to do anything about it.

3:12 PM  
Blogger Odysseus said...

Yes, I see the same bonehead contingent as the Fogger, and their ranks are swelling as the parents are forced to be away from home longer hours and kids are being raised by the msm.

But the question is one of what can be done. Call me a coward, but I'm not willing to physically fight the mafia styled fascist extremist administration and their brownshirts because I'm outmanned and outgunned, and I don't want to end up like Jesus. And voting for or sending money to a loyal-opposition Democrat is no answer either.

In my mind, all we can do is talk to others, write about what we see happening, encourage others to write and engage in conversations, educating people and teaching them to think for themselves, questioning dogma, and in the end decent candidates will get enough support to enter official positions. The question is how bad things need to get before that can happen. In Venezuela it took 80% poverty, and something similar in Argentina. Here, we still think it's our own fault and shameful if we are poor, so we have a long way to go. And getting people with integrity elected is just a start and no guarantee that changes will take place. All my indicators say we have hard times coming.

5:36 PM  
Blogger Crankyboy said...

Agreed.

10:41 AM  

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