F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:28:09 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
snip

We are looking at the "evaporation" of about 11 billion dollars
[equity + new debt] from a company under Zell's control in less
than a year.

How gross does it have to get before its criminal?

Wait 'till you hear the news today. The governor of Illinois is in FBI
custody for corruption as of this morning, and part of it, apparently,
involved deals made with the Tribune Company.

The wicket is getting very sticky.

snip
---------------
Indeed, and I fervently hope this is an isolated and exceptional
case rather than the new standard.

Unfortunately, a presumption of rampant and extensive political
corruption and collusion with the "financial interests" resulting
in "short circuiting" of the regulatory and law enforcement
process fits the known facts all too well.

This leads directly into the question "are the current bail-out
efforts the result of an earnest desire on the part of the
politicians to help the US economy recover, are they the result
of bribes/kickbacks, or does the financial industry now have
adequate 'black-mail' material to force rescue funding?"




As you said, fits the facts...



Re exchange with jcarroll on this point:

While stupidity and incompetence in corporate governance may not
[yet] be criminal offences, conspiracy/bribery to evade/avoid
regulations and subvert/obstruct law enforcement most definitely
are.

Given the huge sums involved, have the wire and other transfers
been checked for compliance with the money laundering and other
statutes, and if not, why not? How much of this money has been
sent "off-shore?"


John is pretty sharp on these matters.
If he is concerned, I suspect we all should be.


Take note all, that this is NOT a situation we have ever been through
before. Like I mentioned to Ed last week, old models don't apply to
new situations.

Richard