Olis day minus one

Tomorrow (Friday) at 2:00 Judge Sim Lake will announce his decision on the resentencing of Jamie Olis.  Olis's 24-year sentence was one of my first topics on this blog, and awakened me to problems with the government's post-Enron campaign against corporate crime.  Tom Kirkendall's commentary on this case, as on the rest of the corporate crime circus in Houston and elsewhere, has been invaluable, and he continues today with a helpful chronology of Olis events. 

The government has built much of its scheme for putting business in jail on this unfortunate young father.  For more than two years, prosecutors could use the Olis example to soften up defendants for pleas and cooperation, sort of like a murdering despot pointing to his display of his enemies' spiked heads.   A significant reduction in Olis's sentence would not only be a welcome bit of justice for Jamie Olis, but an important symbolic turn in the government's questionable campaign.

Update:  Andy Fastow, primary architect of the Enron debacle, who understood that he had little or no chance in court, and therefore turned witness, 10 years; Jamie Olis, bit player whose guilt was, at worst, marginal, and whose biggest mistake may have been insisting on his innocense, 24 years.  Can any ends justify these means?

Comments

Our justice system (if you can call it that) is way out of whack. Subclass attorneys who can't make it in real life get their jollies out of perp-walking people just because those folks make more money.

Yes, there are frauds and cheats out there. However, putting them in jail isn't going to make the folks who lost money whole.

Further, I don't believe it is that much of a deterant. What it does do is makes people think twice or three times before they go to work for a public company or take their company public.

More importantly, it's too easy to move your company (and your family) to another country all together. As these people, who have the means to leave, do so, we will lose many of our best and brightest.

We're back to the Roman times folks. Bread and circuses. Throw the bstrd to the lions. Eventually, they're going to come for you also. Don't think so? Go read your history.

a disgusted american

[Mike Green]

Looks like he got six years. Based on my understanding of the situation, that seems entirely fair (as opposed to the original sentence which was a travesty).

Don't do the crime if you can't serve the time ... trite but true.

[F.O.]

Trite- absolutely.

Perjury is a crime and yet prosecutors give "cooperators" a "Get out of jail Free" card for perjury so long as they now stick with the newly agreed upon script. Tax evasion, insider trading, money laundering, fraud are all crimes that can go away for "cooperation". Just ask all the cooperators and even witnesses in the Enron case- they all bargained testimony for freedom, money too and sometimes that even comes with friendly and supportive PR statements from the prosecution. Restitution claims were reduced too- how convenient. Don't assume however the testimony is necessarily true - the only valuable testimony to prosecutors is testimony that helps them make their case. So I'm sure you can figure that one out- if you don't recall something or remember it differently, well why don't you think about it some more? The bargain requires specificly agreed testimony that cannot change or the bargain and reduced charges etc are withdrawn.

Recognize that in this system there is no crime unless prosecutors say there is and if you don't play the game, they will make sure that eventually you will wish that you had. The bargaining of charges, restitution, and freedom is their overwhelming power. A single prosecutor's unchecked power is greater than that of a jury or judge and it is a playground for some to abuse.

By the way, how does 24 years became 6 in the exact same case? Does it make sense that the boss and leader got 15months for testifying against his subordinate and that prosecutors started claiming that Olis, the junior guy, was the leader all along? If you look back in the news articles, you might will see a number of references to Olis' superiors and conspirators from a top law firm and claims to the public that many more indictments against the higher ups were forthcoming. Almost three years later, the same prosecutors claim there was no evidence after all and that Olis was in fact the leader and controlled what was said to shareholders as a mid level tax guy.. So what happened?

Certain prosecutors such as the ones in this case have a fuzzy relationship with truth and how do you fight that? An indictment, a trial, a conviction, a loss of your family and livelihood are terrible punishments. Add to it years in a medium security prison with the fear of another 20 years to go- don't you think that should be enough for someone who has lived, according to the judge, an exceptional life until he worked on this one transaction at the direction of his superiors and for no personal enrichment?

Anyone who values their life, their family and their freedom would recognize that 6 years in prison on top of everything else he has lost, is an extreme, unnecessary and cruel punishment for this man and his family.