The Politics Involved in Punishing Street Criminals and White-Collar Criminals

How did the United States go from being a country that tries to rehabilitate street criminals and prevent white-collar crime to one that harshly punishes common lawbreakers while at the same time encouraging corporate crime through a massive deregulation of business? Why do street criminals get stiff prison sentences, a practice that has led to the disaster of mass incarceration, while white-collar criminals, who arguably harm more people, get slaps on the wrist-if they are even prosecuted at all?
VIA HUFFPOST – Legal experts said criminal convictions for covering up the size of the spill could land senior BP personnel behind bars and swell the company’s civil liability by billions of dollars.

Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, said the company was cooperating with the federal probe, but he declined to comment on the documents obtained by the HuffPost, or on the possibility that others at the firm may be indicted. Mix’s attorney said in a statement the charges against her client are meritless. Michael Monico, a Chicago criminal defense lawyer representing Sprague, said his client would not comment on the charges against Mix. BP would not comment on Sprague’s role as Mix’s supervisor. CLICK HERE to read full article

Former HealthSouth CEO, Richard Scrushy, Gets Prison Sentenced Reduced

HealthSouth’s former CEO Richard Scrushy was the first executive to be tried under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for cooking the books, altering financial returns, at the company he founded.  On June 28, 2005 a jury in an Alabama courtroom spoke loud and clear…. NOT GUILTY. It was a major setback for the federal government’s initiative to bring executives to justice and Scrushy looked like he dodged a major bullet.  But his victory was short-lived and four months after his acquittal in the HealthSouth case, Scrushy was indicted on political corruption charges for money laundering, obstruction, racketeering and bribery …. along with former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.  In that 2006 trial of payments to the former governor by Scrushy in the amount of $500,000, Scrushy was not so lucky and he was found guilty, resulting in a prison sentence of 82 months.  Last May, luck shined on Scrushy again and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Scrushy’s convictions on honest services fraud, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of the law. CLICK HERE to read more