Going After White Collar Criminals In Silicon Valley

Legal Issues

from the go-after-the-dot-commers dept

Last week we posted an article pointing out that while everyone seemed to enjoy blaming the whole dot com gang for the current wave of white collar crime, that wasn’t really a fair assessment. However, it seems clear that the FBI thinks Silicon Valley is a hotbed of corporate crime. They’ve set up the nation’s first whistle-blower hotline for white collar crime – focused entirely on northern California. I’m not sure why such a hotline needs to be regional, but this one is. Update: In a somewhat related way, a San Jose Mercury News columnist is saying that executives should hang up the picture of a wheelchair bound Robert Gordon in their offices as a reminder of the consequences of white collar crime. Gordon, of course, is the Cisco VP who pleaded guilty to stealing $50 million from the company – and who is wheelchair bound after trying to commit suicide while on the run the law. Of course, I doubt such a picture would really register with most shady execs. They would never associate themselves with such a character. They simply have too much ego – and don’t think what they’re doing is so wrong.