- "A firm of 85,000 people has been destroyed in three
weeks. Not one person at Enron or Andersen has been charged or arrested
in three months. That we have overwhelming collateral consequences for
the innocent before we have justice for the wrongdoers is simply a
travesty."
-
- NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - We
learned today that the Justice Department and executives of Andersen talked
in Washington about the possibility of settling the criminal indictment
of the firm.
-
- We don't know how close they are to a settlement. Nor
the terms. But we do know a settlement should be reached.
-
- The Justice Department indictment has already destroyed
Andersen as a firm. And we know that settlement, in whatever form, will
come too late for many thousands of innocent Andersen employees who will
lose their jobs next week. A number of top officials of this Justice
Department
have much to answer for...as do a number of top executives at
Andersen.
-
- While they can't now salvage all of the jobs that have
been so unnecessarily obliterated by this utterly wrongful indictment of
the firm, they can salvage some of the jobs that remain. I hope that's
enough incentive for both sides in these talks to reach an agreement
quickly.
-
- And hopefully, they can salvage as well faith in the
capacity of the government to care about the little guy, or as damage to
the little guy is referred to in the Justice Department's Criminal Resource
Manual, the collateral consequences.
-
- A firm of 85,000 people has been destroyed in three
weeks.
Not one person at Enron or Andersen has been charged or arrested in three
months. That we have overwhelming collateral consequences for the innocent
before we have justice for the wrongdoers is simply a travesty.
|
