Adelphia ex-CEO Sentenced

   The court sentenced the elder founder of Adelphia Communications, John Rigas, to fifteen years in prison.(See Article)  His son Timothy, aged 49, received a twenty year sentence.  A second son, Michael, faces a retrial in October. 

   The convictions are starting to roll in.  Last Friday the former CEO and CFO of Tyco International were convicted of looting the company.  Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom also awaits sentencing.  In 2004 two Rite Aid Corp executives were sentence to ten and eight years in prison.  In March of 2004 a former finance executive of Dynergy was sentence to twenty four years in prison.  The jury is still out on the former CEI of HealthSouth.  More trials and convictions will come.

    Convictions for financial frauds take time and yet the public, on the revelation of the scandals demands immediate justice.  The effect of the temporary disconnect between public anger and public prosecutions means that lawmakers are pressured to pass legislation in the interim as a demonstration that they are doing something.  The legislation, in this case the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, is never elegant.