This morning’s news brings reports on the bedeviled Frank Quattrone, formerly of Credit Suisse First Boston, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obstructing a federal investigation. He did this, argued the feds, by sending out a routine 22-word e-mail that reminded his subordinates to clean up their e-mail files.
The New York Times noted that Quattrone made $120 million in 2000, the last year of the government’s unsustainable credit bubble, and Federal Judge Richard Owen, ...a Nixon appointee, wasn’t above invoking a little politics of envy before giving the sentence: “Judge Owen refused Mr. Quattrone’s request to remain free while he appealed the case. Mr. Quattrone must surrender to federal prison authorities within 50 days. The judge also fined him $90,300 and initially asked him to make the payment immediately.
‘There’s $50 million in the bank,’ Judge Owen said. ‘He can’t write a check today?’ “ It appears that Quattrone can see through the charade. Says the NYT, “As he left the courthouse, Mr. Quattrone said: ‘To my family in California, Dad is coming home soon, and I love you. And I can hold my head high because I know I’m innocent and I never intended to obstruct justice.’ “
Also in this morning’s news, a $264 million space probe crashed into the ground in Utah because of a faulty parachute, probably resulting a total failure of its mission. The Genesis Project was to collect samples of the sun and return them to earth for scientific study. John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, noted that “[w]e seem to be able to land on Mars, but not on Earth.” There was no mention as to whether Judge Owen would hold NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe accountable for the collection and misuse of conscripted funds, which is somehow legal, while Quattrone, a highly competent investment manager who managed some of CSFB’s most important initial public offerings (including Netscape Communications’ and Amazon.com’s), is looking at a year and a half in prison for violating one of many ambiguous federal regulations.
One takes money, by force, wastes it, and lives to waste another day, while the other is jailed on a technicality in the scapegoat-hunting atmosphere that is common during recessions. Could someone point out to me who is the crook?
