If executives were actually arrested for the crimes their companies commit, you'd see change pronto

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

You'd see new safety regulations implemented, you'd see on site responsibility, you'd see companies responding positively to internal whistle blowers, etc. And you can apply this to any industry: food suppliers who poison us, financial folks who defraud us, insurers who deny and delay claims hoping we'll die, oil companies who wreck our oceans and environment, people who make cars that accelerate or explode . . .

To be clear, I am not talking about actual industrial accidents or unforeseen events that people and companies could not have anticipated or planned for or responded to ahead of time. But I AM talking about all those CEOs and BODs who place PROFIT and their personal wealth and comfort above the health and safety and financial well-being of everyone else in the f!@#ing world and who consciously ignore industry standards, regulations, common sense, and internal and external criticism in order to make MORE MONEY.

Why shouldn't they do a Bernie Madoff perp walk? Whats the bright defining line that he crossed and these others don't?

[Perky]

1. The problem with arresting CEOs is that they are rarely directly and personally responsi

And then you have to prove criminality and culpability. Frog marching makes us feel better, but it would generally be the wrong guy.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. You're right that it may be hard to prove a chain of command directly to the CEO

But in taking the example of BP, which actually has a long history of violations, fines, civil suits, etc., ignoring that history is evidence of criminal negligence and/or depraved indifference. They COULD have done things right - they CHOSE not to in order to save some money.

[Perky]

3. So you per walk the foreman for manslaughter???

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. The incredulous way you ask that question makes me think you think that is inconceivable

I think it is clear from all the reading that I have done lately that BP actively created a "culture of corruption" like we talk about so much in other contexts. Here's some background:

http://m.industry.bnet.com/energy/10004688/bps-gulf-oil... /
http://alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/energy/5369-bp-sti...

They have a terrible record for safety and doing end-runs around compliance and regulators and non-payments of fines, penalties, etc. as well as how they have treated whistleblowers in the past. They're just a crummy company in the ethical, safety sense.

My point is, that is how they CHOOSE to be. I guess it is also how their employees CHOOSE to be, in order to stay employed in that company with its culture of corruption.

There are a lot of crummy companies out there. And everyday average employees are asked to make ethical decisions themselves. I honesty cannot conceive how someone can earn a living and make bonuses for denying healthcare to others for bogus reasons. I imagine someone teaching me the ropes the first day in that company saying "Now, this is where I look for a hangnail so I can deny the cancer treatment." At that moment you have a choice whether to walk out the door or to stay and look for the hangnails. If the Insurance company started to find out that people refused to look for hangnails then I guess that would no longer be a company policy.

You're a line cook in a restaurant and your boss tells you to serve the spoiled chicken. Do you? Or do you throw it out, make a good chicken and start looking for a job the next day after making a phone call to the health department.

I guess I am saying that it could be possible to correct bad company culture from the bottom up if necessary. You seem to think the drilling foreman has no responsibility. I think he has some, there's a lot to go around.


I blame the people who CREATED the company culture of corruption a lot more than I blame the foreman. In life the foremen get blamed and scapegoated a lot more than the management who create the policies do. Like Abu Grahib. Another perfect example of permeation of corruption throughout an organization but only the lower guys got prosecuted.

[Perky]

7. Yo over read me. No I think there is criminality at the Rig level

I don't doubt there is a cultre of greed as well. I am just not sure you can perp wal the CEO if there are no written directives.

[Locrian]

4. hard to get

Its hard to get to the actual weasels in a large company.. Its too easy to cover your tracks / deflect the blame.

But aren't corporations now "people"? So, treat is as a personal crime: we need a criminal code for companies, up to and including the death penalty.

[Yavin4]

6. You'd Need Congress To Pass The Criminal Statutes

Good luck Chuck with that.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Oh, many laws exist, they are just not enforced

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/will-hilda-solis-arrest-w_b_166261.html
Art LevineContributing editor of The Washington Monthly
Posted February 12, 2009 | 05:01 AM (EST)

Will Hilda Solis Arrest "Wage Theft" CEOs? Lessons from L.A.'s Car Wash Bust

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In this city, we will hold to account and prosecute those who cheat or abuse their employees," said Delgadillo. "We are not going to allow business owners to cut corners -- in violation of the law -- to turn a profit." The owners of these four car wash sweatshops, Benny and Nissan Pirian, could each face as long as 86 years in jail and a total of more than $1.25 million in fines and restitution. (Neither Pirian brother returned phone calls for comment, and manager Manny Reyes told this reporter "I don't know anything" about allegations that he flaunted a machete, a bullet and a billy club at various times to threaten workers and organizers. )

But it's not just the Southern California car wash industry that routinely violates basic labor laws on pay, hours and workers' rights: it's a widespread scandal involving an estimated $19 billion a year in virtually unpunished wage theft involving some of the country's major corporations, including Wal-Mart, Tyson and even Federal Express.

And it's no surprise, then, that such companies are among the most virulent opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, which aims to level the playing field by giving workers the right to choose how to form a union.

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Even so, as the AFL-CIO's general counsel, Jon Hiatt, observes, "My dream is that the first act of the new Secretary of Labor would be to identify top executives of companies that routinely violate wages and hours laws -- and take them out of their offices in handcuffs. The deterrent value would be enormous." In the 1930s, he points out, FDR's War Labor Board pursued the prosecution of the top executive of the Montgomery Ward company for refusing to recognize a union -- and he was indeed photographed being dragged from his office in handcuffs.

[KakistocracyHater]

9. they're all one person legally under the law, I don't see any problem

arresting them for illegal dumping on a beach, beaches in this case. I'd turn a blind eye to all the bullshit arguments & treat them all as "one person", they should have better considered the ramifications before they signed on to the corporation.