The case of Bernie Ebbers, former head of Worldcom, is now in the hands of the jury. The prosecution painted him as a detail person, who obsessed over the expenses for coffee service at headquarters. The main prosecution witness, Mr. Sullivan, the chief financial officer, said he discussed the accounting frauds with Ebbers and got his approval. The defense painted Ebbers as a good salesman, who didn't know technology (although he bought up a key piece of the Internet in UUNet) and didn't know accounting--just a good old phys ed coach.
Though I love to believe the worst of CEO's (part of my agri-populist background showing), I found the picture of this CEO a bit disconcerting--it reminded me so much of one of my past bosses, the one I think of as the dark prince. DP was a mix of insecurities and strengths. He loved to show his knowledge and he knew more than I liked to believe. But he didn't like to show any ignorance and he was expert at hiding it. He'd do a good show and tell for outsiders and usually try to skate his way past potholes in staff meetings. Dilbert partially describes him, but Dilbert's boss is too clueless too often. One of DP's ways of asserting his knowledge, and his power, was to focus on trivia (to me), on the details of correspondence, on the costs of minor expenditures. So without knowing the men, or hearing the testimony, I can believe Ebbers or I can believe Sullivan.
I can even believe them both--the slick numbers man not admitting openly that he's violating the law, or doing anything differently than his peers would do; the salesman who cons everyone and ends up agreeing to fraud, both in the service of the almighty dollar.
Bottom line--throw them both in jail--look at the great things jail has done for Martha. Maybe we should throw all CEO's in jail when they reach 60, just on general principle. A sort of blanket indulgence for all the sins we know they must have committed by being CEO.
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