Justice Dept Replacing Trials With Deals For Corporations

The New York Times:

In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as a bribe to win looser environmental regulations for Monsanto's cotton crops, according to a court document. Monsanto was also caught concealing the bribe with fake invoices.

A few years earlier, in the age of Enron, these kinds of charges would probably have resulted in a criminal indictment. Instead, Monsanto was allowed to pay $1 million and avoid criminal prosecution by entering into a monitoring agreement with the Justice Department.

In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years.

Instead, many companies, from boutique outfits to immense corporations like American Express, have avoided the cost and stigma of defending themselves against criminal charges with a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, which allows the government to collect fines and appoint an outside monitor to impose internal reforms without going through a trial. In many cases, the name of the monitor and the details of the agreement are kept secret.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[olda]

06:40 PM on 04/09/2008

And the other little tidbit from the article is John Ashcroft getting the business for "monitoring" the lawbreakers .If regular Joe's spit on the sidewalk they get beat up or jail ,all is swell in Bushes banana republic, when will people in this country wake up.

[homas]

05:56 PM on 04/09/2008

I recall the old Richard Prior monologue where he quipped that anyone looking for justice in the courts/jails would only find "just us"!

[homas]

05:50 PM on 04/09/2008

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." - Franklin D. Roosevelt , April 29, 1938

Republicanism = Corporatism = Fascism

Way past time for a change!

[NelsonR]

04:26 PM on 04/09/2008

White collar criminals are an acceptable norm in America. Accept what is since to change it would entail having an educated average class other then being followers and apathetic at the same time.
Got to love our upper crust and elitist who rule over our lives. Hopefully the truckers will expand their strike and cause these, rich who rule, to rethink an upper class ruling society. The people have an opportunity to change things every four years but what do you get, more of the same crap.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

03:42 PM on 04/09/2008

WTF?

Break the law? Get a side deal.

No adverse publicity. No criminality.

It's not even a garden variety plea bargain, approved or rejected by a court, and with a "conviction" associated.

Last, we're not exactly talking about a non-politicized Department of "Justice" either.

After conquering Congress, the Executive Branch has just usurped the Judicial Branch.

IMPEACHMENT NOW!

[lisakaz]

01:59 PM on 04/09/2008

Is this news? Just another day helping the fat cats and screwing the American ppl.

[JRandomPoster]

02:44 PM on 04/09/2008

This is indeed news. The road from a republic to fascism is paved with the steps it takes to get there, but we have taken so many steps that we have become immured to events such as this.

Your post implies that you have at least at some level accepted BushCo's America. Me - I choose to believe that it is not too late.

[studlyguy]

01:36 PM on 04/09/2008

And they said fascism couldn't work in America ,cause the American people wouldn't put up with it,Man were they wrong

[frappe]

01:30 PM on 04/09/2008

Of course they are making deals instead of prosecuting. Given that we're talking about the Bush administration's "justice" dept., the cynic in me wouldn't be surprised to learn of deals that promise high paying jobs upon leaving the Justice dept.

[JRandomPoster]

01:23 PM on 04/09/2008

The next and final step to becoming, by definition, a fascist state is when the fines imposed become less expensive to pay than the profit that is made by the mis-deeds of the corporations for which they are being fined. At that point, in all but name, the corporations and the government will be one and the same.

[gd7277467]

01:22 PM on 04/09/2008

OF COURSE THEY ARE !

THIS IS NO SURPRISE !!

[NoSillyName]

12:39 PM on 04/09/2008

The government is rife with corruption from top to bottom. The UnJust Department is just one example among many.

[LivingStardust]

09:02 AM on 04/09/2008

Time for President Obama to clean house at the DOJ. Until the Bushies are removed, nothing will be done except fermenting the causes for a just civilian and legal rebellion against the Federal government by individuals and States that have been burdened by corporate greed to the point of breaking. If it reached revolutionary meltdown, these executives seem to think they'll be immune, not realizing that they are some of the first targets (along with GOP members) when critical mass is reached.

ENOUGH FASCISM.

Your days are numbered, either way.

[gcallaghan]

07:53 AM on 04/09/2008

Republicans don't punish potential donors for their crimes, they only punish them for getting caught.

[Troubledwawa]

07:52 AM on 04/09/2008

I can see where some would want a speedy justice. There's only a few months left in this administration.

I don't see Obama putting up with this BS.

[billu]

07:21 AM on 04/09/2008

What's the problem? If there was a trial there would be a lot of extra cost and a smaller chance of a fine ever being paid. You cannot jail a corporation. Here they have an agreement to be regulated and monitored and will pay a hefty fine. We save the cost of a trial.

[Troubledwawa]

07:49 AM on 04/09/2008

Arthur Anderson?

[PierreLeClerke]

01:18 PM on 04/09/2008

I know your not that stupid and naive, stop acting like this kind of action is not collusion between the corporations/donors and their wholly owner subsidiary (bushco).

April 19th Philadelphia Independence Hall 9am ABOLISH this criminal cabal and remove the tentacles of corruption from every agency of our federal government. Every week a new scandal.