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The Short Arm of the Law
mindbrane writes "CNN takes a look at when companies are too big for the legal system to handle. Quoting: 'Prosecutors said that excluding Pfizer would most likely lead to Pfizer's collapse, with collateral consequences: disrupting the flow of Pfizer products to Medicare and Medicaid recipients, causing the loss of jobs including those of Pfizer employees who were not involved in the fraud, and causing significant losses for Pfizer shareholders. ... So Pfizer and the feds cut a deal. Instead of charging Pfizer with a crime, prosecutors would charge a Pfizer subsidiary, Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc. ... As a result, Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc., the subsidiary, was excluded from Medicare without ever having sold so much as a single pill. And Pfizer was free to sell its products to federally funded health programs.' IBM may have cast the mold for this sort of thing in its 1970s antitrust case, but the recurrence of similar cases speaks to ongoing concerns for legal systems."
That's what I was going to say.
When an individual is convicted of a 'hacking' crime, the punishment is often, 'No access to computers.'
When an male is convicted of rape, there is often a cry for him to be castrated.
I say when an individual is convicted of mis-using his corporation and corporate power that he have it be removed from him, (as well as any profits he might have earned at the time.)
Follow the signature trails, and get the people on both sides. The people responsible for oversight need to be held liable and the people who accepted the order need to be held liable. The further away from the central figure, the less their individual punishment would be. (However, emphasis goes UP, not down. We don't want any sacrificial lambs.)
Instead of a whole corporation paying for the actions of it's management, the management pays, and the punishment for the corporation is simply dealing with a management shift. (Hopefully a more carefully ethical one this time.)
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
I disagree, because it puts people between getting paid money to feed their children and walking out and getting nothing. Since corporations are "owned" in the sense that they have shareholders, I think that any corporation that commits a crime just gets partiallt or totally claimed by the state. For small infractions, say, take 20% ownership(equally from shareholders), which is a fine of millions/billions depending on the size of the company. For more serious things, the govt should just take complete ownership of the company. Also make it so that the govt has to then auction off the company, and the previous owners cannot buy any shares in that company ever again. This has three major benefits, firstly, the employees just trying to feed their families don't get shafted. secondly, it punishes those ultimately responsible. Thirdly, people know they can lose everything if they invest in dodgy companies.
Why shareholders aren't punished for the actions of a corporation is completely beyond me. They decide who the CEO/CTO is, the majority shareholders decide what the corp does. why not hold them all responsible? and even give them jail time, etc etc for more serious things.
And also: Jennifer Government, by Max Berry.
--Obyron
Should clarify the mind and make directors / VPs realise that they must take responsibility for the organisations they run id they want to keep earning the big bucks.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Not necessarily figuratively.
If a corporation's actions lead to deaths in a jurisdiction that has a death penalty for those actions if committed by a person, then the people within the corporation responsible for those actions should be eligible for that as well.
"I was just following orders" isn't acceptable in a war crimes trial, it shouldn't be here either.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
That is called risk, starting a company or having stocks is risk taking business.
You do not have the right to be exempt of risks.
It's just amazing to me that a female lawyer would choose Thomas "women are subservient" Aquinas over Thomas Jefferson. If the thought processes of Aquinas had continued to remain dominant, she would have never had the chance to become a lawyer.
SCOTUS has never reached the decision that corporations are "deserving" of human rights. A passing remark included by a court reporter in the case of Santa Clara County vs Southern Railroad is usually the basis for that belief. It is, frankly speaking, one of the most harmful beliefs in modern law.
Patents didn't keep the US from cashing in Bayer's patent for the Anthrax cure. Or, rather, give them the hint that they will invalidate it due to "national emergency" if they didn't offer the antidote at the US government mandated price.
Why's that impossible with Pfizer?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually by keeping the cookie and looking at him kindly while trying to reason with him why it's not ok to take the cookie. What will the 2 year old learn? That he can take the cookie, keep the cookie and that you're a joker that he needn't take serious.
Odd, I think I just realized what's wrong with our economy and our parenting at the same time...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I say when an individual is convicted of mis-using his corporation and corporate power that he have it be removed from him, (as well as any profits he might have earned at the time.)
I say that fines should be measured in percentages rather than in numbers: Speeding ticket? You pay 1% of your wealth; Fraud? You pay 200% of the fraudulent gains; etc.
You can't take the sky from me...
If my boss tells me to kill a person, and I do, I should go to jail for murder. My boss also goes to jail for murder. Why should it be any different for employees of a corporation?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Yeah, what happened to men like John Adams?
"Let justice be done, though the heavens fall."