Corporate Crime and Punishment

Notes

Chapter 1

1. According to a New York Times/CBS Poll taken in 2013, 79 percent of the American public believes that more “bankers and employees of financial institutions [should have been prosecuted] for their role in the financial crisis of 2008.” See New York Times, September 25, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/26/us/politics/26poll-results.html. Other polls show similar, if slightly lower, public numbers. This does not prove the reality of underenforcement, but it certainly shows the perception.

2. Following Enron’s collapse in 2001, two of its former CEOs, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, were convicted on multiple counts of fraud (and acquitted on other counts). Kenneth Lay died before his sentencing, but Skilling ...