CEO's using the "I'm not an accountant" defense in court

[kuozzman]

The whole "I'm not an accountant" claim is the popular defense of execs at several other companies who continue to face similar charges. It's fucking absurd! I'm going to court for a speeding ticket next week and considering saying that "I'm not a mechanic, I had no idea I was speeding". The spedometer? "Oh, it said I was going the speed limit." The cop's radar gun? "Well, he's clearly a compulsive liar." Think it will work?

01/07/05
Walter Forbes was CEO of CUC Intl. for over a decade while the company cooked the books routinely. When uncovered in 1998, it was described as the largest accounting fraud in history. This week, seven years later, a jury convicted CUC's No. 2 executive, Kirk Shelton, but could not reach a verdict on Forbes.

The defense of Walter Forbes is that he "didn't know about it". He blamed it all on Cosmo Corigliano, former CFO and the prosecution's chief witness, who testified to briefing Forbes with "cheat sheets" that clearly showed how the profit was being inflated. Forbes's lawyer said Corigliano was a "serial liar" and a "con man". As the fraud was taking place, Forbes was too busy working on the "strategy vision part, talking to key clients, being the outside voice of the company".

[InvisibleBallots]

1. can't we send them to prison?

These crooks get to walk around scot-free, why?