Mar. 10, 2004 - 18:20 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Lesson Is This ?

Guess I should have been keeping a log book on which super executive has been convicted of what and how much time he or she is going to serve, how much of a fine will be levied. It could be quite interesting to see how Martha Stewart's case compares to something like Enron where many people lost their future funds on retirement -- and the way they were conned into holding on to the stock. I also think that it was similar to a case or two I know of where the employees were conned into being "Team Players," and buying stock in the company/corporation/ambush, whatever.

Editorial in this morning's Rocky Mountian News.

Titled, "Wrong lesson from Stewart case."

A few interesting things are mentioned. "As we said earlier this week, the conviction of Martha Stewart is more proof of how stupid and dangerous -- not to mention wrong -- it is to lie to officials investigating a possible crime.

The editorial goes on, "But we're not quite ready to agree with U.S. David Kelley, who claimed the conviction was about "protecting the integrity of this system." No, what this massive prosecution of a minor offense says is, if the system wants to get you, it probably will.

It brings out a thing or two, "Stewart was convicted of obstructing an investigation into a crime -- insider trading -- for which she was never charged. By no stretch of the securities law was she an insider in the company, ImClone, whose stock she sold right before its value plummeted -- saving the multimillionaire marketing genius all of $57,388."

Saved by the bell maybe, "And the judge, thankfully, threw out the most serious allegation Stewart was charged with -- stock fraud. Prosecutors said Stewart tried to boost the value of her company's stock by falsely protesting her innocence. This comes dangerously close to punishing someone for exercising a basic right, freedom of speech, and it also intrudes on another part of the Constitution, the presumption of innocence to which Stewart was entitled."

The final paragraph, "Its sure not what the investigators had in mind, but for any CEO's paying attention there was another lesson from the one Kelley wanted to send: When federal investigators come around shut up."

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Goes back to the old story of Jean Val Jean and his theft of a loaf of bread -- was it -- way back when ? Stewart saved $57,388. For a multi millionaire that is chicken feed to a multi-millionaire I think. She made a mistake, she lied. So many of us do. Yet I see insurance company settlements for injury in auto accidents that come to the $100,000 amounts or above.

Somewhere I read that she could have avoided all this hoorah by paying a fine and promising not to do it again. Might be true, I don't know. I do know that I saw an article in the paper that K-Mart might tumble due to all this.

Old young, PhD's or high school grads, who will benefit and really what kind of a Lesson Is This ? . . . . . . . . . . . .

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