Why Aren't White Collar Criminals In Jail?

from the the-more-you-steal... dept

A good article at Fortune looking at the fact that most white collar criminals never go to jail. In fact, many never even get charged with anything. The (long) article looks at why so many white collar crimes happen. There are self-policing mechanisms which simply don't work. Then, there's the SEC, which is weak and almost powerless in a lot of cases. State and federal agencies have more power, but less resources (and, in most cases, no desire to work on such cases). Basically, the rule of thumb is, if you're going to be a crook, aim big. You're unlikely to get caught. And, if you are caught, you'll probably "settle" and give back some of the money and retire somewhere nice. Maybe you'll even write a book or go on a speaking tour. To go with the article, Fortune has a nice timeline of business scams that starts with the Ponzi scheme, but does not yet include the Enron debacle.

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