Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling have been found guilty of the corporate crash known as Enron. All along they maintained the trial was a witchhunt, yet didn't blame their underlings; they just said this was all normal business practices that the government was trying to criminalise. The People didn't buy it.
Lay said: "I firmly believe I'm innocent."
On television Lay invoked a higher authority than Judge Lake's court, saying: "We believe that God in fact is in control and indeed he does work all things for good for those who love the Lord."
Both are almost certain to appeal. They were each released on a $US5 million bond, with Lay having to obtain pledges from his children to make the amount.
They will be sentenced on September 11. Skilling's crimes carry penalties of up to 185 years' jail; Lay's up to 165 years.
Sean Berkowitz, the director of the Justice Department Enron Task Force, said: "The jury has spoken and they have sent an unmistakable message to boardrooms across the country that you can't lie to shareholders, you can't put yourself in front of your employees' interests, and no matter how rich and powerful you are you have to play by the rules.
"You sort of think, "What were they thinking?"
They essentially wiped out thousands of people's retirement savings as well as investment dollars while earning dirty big gobs of money. When the party was over and the cleaners came, what made them think they weren't going to be taken out with the garbage? You really don't wwant to be tried in a jury trial where the jury represent everybody who was envious of your amassed wealth and resentful of loss of their own assets.
The mind boggles at the delusion of these men.
Barry Bonds Hits No. 715
The melon-headed one hit his 715th homerun to surpass Babe Ruth. Bonds is now 2nd on the all-time career HR list.
Bonds now trails only Hank Aaron's 755 for first place. His 715th homer came on a 3-2 fastball in the bottom of the fourth inning from right-handed pitcher Byung-Hyum Kim of the Colorado Rockies before a near-capacity crowed at AT&T Park.Byung-Hun Kim! That'd be right. If there ever was aan unclutch pitcher, it's Kim.
It was the sixth pitch to Bonds in the at-bat and he took a full swing on Kim's submarine-style delivery. Bonds seemed to sense immediately that the ball was hit well and left the batter's box slowly to watch the ball sail over the fence to the right of the 399-foot mark. A fan in the stands appeared to get his hand on the ball but could not hold it and it fell into a gap behind the fence where there are no seats.
I've kind of kept my mouth shut about Bonds and his HR chase because I really have mixed feelings about the feeat itself. Forget Bonds, the obnoxiouss superstar athlete for a moment; whatever his personal faults, they are his own and we would not know them but for this business of celebrity.
Then there's the issue of performance enhancing drugs in sport.
Steroids and PEDs are bad for you. To the best scientific knwoledge this stuff is bad for athletes so they have been baanned in many sports with good reason. Andd yet, there's always been this niggling interest inwhat the human body can achieve with the assistance of these drugs; call it a perverse curiosity. There's a certain amount of that in Baseball as players who took PEDs did amaazingly well; like Barry Bonds
Now, they drugs weren't actually banned in baseball until recently; so even if you claimed Baarry was a cheat, he wasn't really a drug *cheat* per se. He was breaking the law, and therefore isopen for criminal prosecution; but baseball hadn't banned PEDs until the beginning of last season.
So 715 homeruns by Barry Bonds to pass the Babe. What does it really mean? What ever people want it to mean, I guess.
AFL Fantasy Disaster Weekend
My team has slipped to 8th on the back fo a predicatble loss to the 'UK Challenge' team. It was a thumping, just like 2 weeks ago. With only 5 trades left, I didn't feel like re-jigging my team for one game. Maybe I'll do it this week, maybe not. It doesn't change the fact that my team was left behind in the dust by 200 points.
World Cup Song
I have posted up my FIFA World Cup Song for Australia up at iCompositions.It's called 'The Wrong Code'
Please check it out and hit the download button. :)
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