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Criminals at Enron |
September 2002
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Enron: Theft by Any Other Name
Some men rob you with a gun, and some with a fountain pen -- so goes the old Arlo Guthrie tune. And at Enron, they robbed their stockholders with a prospectus and a balance sheet that weren't worth the paper they were printed on.
The flaks for free-markets have, predictably, howled about the need to avoid federal regulation and keeping the good businessmen free to drive our economy. They miss the point.
Enron, and the other frauds perpetrated on Wall Street, isn't about the need for rules, filings, or laws. It's about taking money under false pretenses. It's a crime. Just because it happened at one of the biggest corporations in the history of money is irrelevant.
If I sell you land with an oil well on it, and I tell you there is oil in the well, that isnt' true, then any money I get from you is dirty.
If I sell you a pill that will cure cancer, and it turns out to be nothing but sugar, I have stolen you money just as surely as if I held a gun to your head and took your wallet.
And if I sell you shares in a company, and the figures that make it look profitable aren't correct, you should get you money back, and I should go to jail. Here's hoping that happens.