Huh?
 

Andrew Fastow is the govt's prime witness against Skilling and Lay. He has a bit of bargaining power. He used it. I don't recall the specifics, but I think he pushed (and the govt backed him on it to keep him a cooperative witness) the court pretty hard for this arrangement. I recall something about a judge getting really pissed off at his wife and him for trying to knock her time down to five months or something like that.

Huh?
 

Yeah, the thing about the 5 months vs. a year was in the article.

Jesus fucking christ, though, that kind of pisses me off. All kinds of kids who get fucked because both parents go to jail and there's no money to cushion it -- and fat cats get to spread out their time so that their poor pampered baby kiddies don't have to pick which felon parent to visit in prison over the weekend. Fucking Fastows should have thought about their kids before they went and committed felonies.

Huh?
 

I think that the prosecution's case against her was fairly weak, and DeGuerin was prepared to take it to trial if they didn't get that concession. My understanding was that the consecutive sentence provision was the only real deal breaker in the plea agreement. Judge Hintner wasn't particularly amused, though. And he gave her a much harsher sentence thatn the prosecutors asked for.

Huh?
 

It sounded from the article like it did go to trial. I thought the plea arrangement was contingent on her getting the 5 months time, 5 months probation. Anyway, like I said, fucking ridiculous. Did she also get 800 threadcount sheets in her cell?

Huh?
 

Um, isn't this a good thing for the kids?

Ahnold - "I will fight the special interests that don't give me money"
 

Good news, Kah-lee-forneeans! Apparently now you can shop at your local pawn establishment without any need to question the origins of the goods - the Governator believes that "I didn't know it was stolen" is a good defense to a charge of receipt of stolen property.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll...WS24/506040390

Huh?
 

You don't even want to known about the consultants (ex wardens) who will "go to bat" for rish prisoners to get them transferred to prisons closer to home or get them better accomodations. There's a whole creepy cottage industry of ex-insiders who can be hired for several thousand bucks to get your client as good a deal as one can get when one's in jail. Last one I used (long ago) was $3500.00. He did a great job.

Huh?
 

Yeah, it is. We should apply it every kid whose parents go to jail.

Huh?
 

Fuck the kids. Why should their pampered asses get special treatment? Why can't they live with a goddamn relative? Like RT's high school classmate. At least they won't end up in foster care, unlike many children of people who commit felonies and go to prison.

Huh?
 

Maybe it was his deal, then. He's promised to deliver a lot of other stuff in the Enron related prosecutions. Makes sense that he'd make sure that his kids were taken care of before delivering Skilling and Lay.

ETA: No it never went to trial. She plead guilty to a felony, Hittner balked at the deal, she withdrew the plea, and ultimately plead guilty to a misdemeanor, where she got the maximum time.

Huh?
 

What I want to know is how much cash they had to forfeit. If you sell drugs and they trace your dough to drug sales, you can lose it all. Shit, in rem forfeitures allow them to take any item (car, house, etc...) which you use to facilitate illegal activity. I want to know what kind of cash these scumbags had to give back. I haven't read jack about that. Shit, I think Scott Sullivan, the WorldCom equivalent of Fastow, had to cough $15 mil or something like that (of course, he got to keep his sweet $10 mil home in FL, I think).

If you're going to commit crimes, use the money gained from them to build massive homes in FL or TX.

Huh?
 

Did he deliver, or have they not even gone to trial yet, almost four years down the line?

Huh?
 

According to the article I linked to (read much, raouaouaouaol?) they forfeited $30 million, including a vacation home in VT. It did not indicate that they had to give up whatever mansion they lived in in Houston (or River Oaks, or whatever).

Huh?
 

I think its a better thing to get these kids away from their goddamned greedheaded sleazebag parents. What kind of lessons is a conniving ____ like Lea Fastow (from what I've read, she makes her husband look charming) going to teach her kids? "This is how you hide money in a SPE, Junior."

Huh?
 

Oh, I see, you're kidding.