posted
After all the hubub on this board about Greedy people ruining other people's economic lives, we have an instance of the Genuine Article getting sent to prison and no one has a comment?
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
As I am not on a personal-name basis with anyone named Bernie, I have no idea what you are talking about.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I thought it was rather big news, forgive me for not explaining.
Brief Summary: he bankrupted one of the largest Telecom corporations in the world by buying on margin to try to gain more power and using the company's assests to cover his personal losses.
posted
Try changing the subject line; I've been seeing this thread and assuming that it was a birthday thread for some new hatracker named Bernie.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I heard about this on the news - have to say, hadn't followed the story much before then.
His lawyer seemed pretty shocked at the sentence. Given his age (63, I think) it's pretty much the rest of his life.
I'm still unsure on what I think about long jail terms for corporate crimes. Not that I think they should go unpunished - but. Something I have to work through in my mind.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
woohoo! I'm happy about this, and if I'd been online when it just said Bernie I'd have known who you meant. Too bad he'll probably just go to a minimum security "rich folks" jail, but still better than nothing.
Anyone care to guess where I worked from 2001-2004?
posted
Whereas I simply worked at a company from 1999-2002 which was forced into bankruptcy (and subsequently out of business) by the practices of the company where you two worked.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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We were discussing how much *personal* responsibility he had for the collapse of the Telecom industry yesterday... we decided "more than any other single person"
Which one, Pop? I didn't know you were in the same biz I was...
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
The thing that really got me about this story as I was following it was an alleged quote between Bernie and the chief accountant. Apparently the accountant explained how they could report operational costs as capital investment to meet the projections, but that it wasn't ethical and probably illegal. Bernie said "We just have to hit those numbers."
That sentence sums up the prevailing attitude I saw at MCI. Just hit your numbers. It doesn't matter if you're cheating, screwing over the customer, telling lies, ripping off the rest of your team, as long as you hit the numbers that have been set for your goal.
The bankruptcy didn't hit me very bad; I didn't have any stock and didn't lose my job. But I had friends who'd been doing the employee stock purchase plan for years, pumping a big chunk of their paychecks into stock that was suddenly worthless. Thanks, Bernie, see you in 2030.
posted
Star Telecom. An order of magnitude below the "big three," but at the time it was I believe the 6th largest in the U.S.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
yeah... wow... when you begin to wonder how many went down because of him, and then, on top of that, how all those crashes affected Vendors like Nortel and Ericsson...
25 yrs seems kinda light all of a sudden...
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I read that he cried when he heard the sentence. I tried, but I couldn't muster any sympathy for him.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
If we're going to have the death penality, I feel like it should applicable in cases like this. Oftentimes, these people are responsible for much much greater personal suffering and damage to society than the ones we do execute and they are, in my uniformed opinion, much more likely than the average person on death row to factor "This could get me killed." into their thinking, so that it would actually act as a deterrent.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I literally have tears rolling down my face right now.
Even when the question was posed, I thought maybe he wondered if it was intentional that the opinion was uninformed/informed. I didn't even get it till the Civil war comment.
Oh man, I'm a bit punchy, I think.
But I agree with you Squick. I think they are probably the only group that might take that into account. And you have to wonder just how many people he did kill. I mean, between suicides and heart attacks, I bet the number was pretty high.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I have followed most of the high profile cases, after seeing Ebbers get a mis-trial the first time cuz of the nutty old lady, i'd lost a bit of hope.
I am "happy" with this verdict.
This is the guy with the $10,000 dollar shower rod. heh heh heh
Posts: 2752 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
And Thor, just think, he was prosecuted by the Bush administration for things he did mostly during the Clinton administration.
Dagonee P.S., I don't blame Clinton for this at all, nor do I think Clinton's DoJ wouldn't have successfully prosecuted - it's merely a mostly whimsical response to some older posts by you complaining about Bush being too soft on corporate crime.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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