Fraud convictions of former Westar Energy executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake were tossed out today by a federal appeals court in Denver. What’s more, most of the counts can’t be retried, the court said. It just goes to show how difficult it is to convict CEOs, even when they nearly run their companies into the ground for their personal enrichment.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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32 Comments
Freaking unbelieveable. If I were rich, I could get away with almost anything. That is the American legal system.
In a place where I couldn’t even get a lawyer to take my case against a college that stole two years of my life and stole my career based on false accusations- these two can steal from all of us and get away with it.
Mindboggling. Thing is, the Board apparently gave him permission to loot the compant, thereby making it all legal.
I’d like to see the share-holders do to them what was done to OJ – sue them for everything they and their families have and ever will have.
Ben my friend, you are probably right on the money with the share holders remark.
PoliticalMom,With all due respect – one does not get railroaded unless they are standing near the tracks.
Now watch both of them turn around and sue the company and make millions more. Only in America.
Again reaffirming that if you have enough money and good lawyers, you can get away with anything in this country. Amazing that this wasn’t in the news (at least I didn’t see it) until the convictions were thrown out, I wonder why?
that’s uber-bad, Pee – you couldn’t even FIND a lawyer to take your case? There are lawyers out there that will take ANY case…
unless, of course, you don’t have one. =)
Nutz, I called every education attorney in the state, there are like TWO of them, and I couldn’t even get them to call me back to LOOK at my case.
The one lawyer who agreed to look at my evidence, and actually summoned the school to send all the documents to him, he said that I would have had a good case had I not dropped my original appeal, and I only dropped my original appeal because the school said they were going to let me redo that one class they claimed I failed (the one where they changed my passing grade to a fail because of the questionable ‘professionalism’ because I gave the appearance of cheating- remember it was proven I wasn’t cheating). By that time my statute of limitations were up, and got charged 400 dollars for the lawyer.
And Jim G, that’s not at all true.I wasn’t anywhere near the tracks.
As always with you, Pee…
It’s your story. Tell it any way you like.
As always with you, Nutz…
Stalking the P Mom, lurking about like a Peeping Tom.
It’s really getting pretty creepy.
What college did you go to, P_Mom? They sound like vindictive b@st@rds.
Meanwhile, Wittig scoots out of 18 years of prison based on a technicality that the jury wasn’t told enough about the SEC filing laws.
That’s what happens when you let pro-fat-cat RepubliCONs appoint the judges.
A small, western Kansas community college that was recently in a lot of trouble for athletics fraud.
Interestingly, at my first day in that school, the department instructors had to come talk to the class about a student they made excuses for doing practically the same kind of thing to the year prior. The students apparently were concerned, and the staff wanted to assure the students that they were fair and honest. And I believed them!
So I know there is at least another gal out there like me.
political_mom,
Please stop snatching up the bait that Nutz provides. It is beneath you. Nutz makes all kinds of claims and refuses to back them up. We have no way of knowing if he is completely full of shit or not.
Without much evidence, it is clear he claims to be a brain-dead conservative. Why would you want to argue with someone like him?
Would you go out of your way to befriend an asshole like him? I am doubting that you would. But yet, you have gone out of your way to respond to him.
Show some respect for yourself and ignore that trollish creep, okay?
But secretly, I want to bang him.
He’s heard my story before, I’m not worried about what he thinks one iota.
And obviously, I didn’t make that last comment.
But don’t you see, P_mom that you dignify his crap when you respond to it?
Silence and complete non-response is what that turd deserves.
Thing is Steven, I’ve done that in the past. And just like the school bully, silence doesn’t stop the abuse.
P_mom,
Thing is, this is different than the school yard.
We can figure out something better than this, I am sure.
I think you have my home email address. Let me know if you don’t.
I just don’t think you will right past wrongs, by dealing with this obnoxious prick.
Take care my friend,
America: the best justice money can buy.
Steven I emailed you, did you not get it?
And we wonder why we have white collar criminals, Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, etc…?It is clear why we have problems with corporate crime: BECAUSE IT PAYS, AND PAYS WELL! And the xx0xxwell paid(off) judges let the criminals go with a slick smile, a hand shake and a sizable campaign contribution!Justice, my ass…. Once again, the rich get the gold mine and the poor get the shaft. But in this case, it was all the rest of the utility customers in Kansas.
I wonder what corporation he’ll become the CEO of next?
Nope; he’ll go to the Bush admin.
Dorking, you’re right.He’ll be a “energy advisor” asap.
Ben: Tragically, your plan would have as much collection success as the OJ action did.
Was this judge one of those ‘activist’ judges that the Republicans hate unless it is their ass on the line?
Several years ago, Mr. Wittig and his associate, Mr. Lake, hatched a diabolical plan to split Westar Energy Company into two parts, the regulated power company portion and the unregulated portion which would contain the security companies, etc. To accomplish this, they established a whopping $3.6 billion debt which they were going to place on the regulated Westar electrical power company and Gas Service Company. Then the diabolical plan — Wittig and Lake would switch to the unregulated part of the company, basically free of debt, and ride happily and wealthily off into the sunset.
Fortunately for Kansas ratepayers, some 655,000 utility customers, the federal justice system finally interceded and sentenced David Wittig and Douglas Lake to prison.
So, now, what’s this about? The federal appeals court in Denver is arbitrarily casting out parts of this case. Is a federal judge being paid off? The public needs a lot more information, quick.
What is the Judges name and who appointed them?
I hate to rain on y’all’s parade, and I don’t doubt that Wittig deserves prosecution . . .
BUT . . .
having read the news account, it appears that the jury was not given the proper elements instruction; in other words, they were not properly instructed on just what constituted the crime.
If any of you are tried for a criminal offense, I presume you will want the jury properly instructed??? Isn’t any defendant entitled to that?
The more interesting part of the ruling is that double jeopardy (DJ) applies, barring retrial; usually, with a mistrial DJ does not apply and the case can be retried without the error. My guess would be that the prosecution caused or sought the erroneous instruction, and in effect created the error, which could cause DJ to apply.
BTW, RustyFord, federal district judges don’t need campaign contributions; it is a Art. III appointment, for life. So much for that theory.
Judges, folks are paid to apply the law, and apply it evenly to all, not to make the case come out as we want it.
GMC why IS it so hard when someone has a legitimate case, to get a lawyer to take it…and why does it take so long to decide which cases to take?
P-Mom
Without knowing what your case was about, one issue is one of damages. It makes a difference, certainly, whether you were harmed. But the real issue is often whether money damages can be obtained to redress the harm. Without the money damages, often, an attorney won’t take the case because he will find it hard to get paid.
Often, damages can’t be recovered, either because the harm is not measureable in dollars, or the defendant simply has no dollars to take (ya can’t bleed a turnip, ya know).
The other reality is that not every bad thing is someone’s fault. Sometimes bad stuff simply happens, without it being any one’s fault. Or fault is so diffused it is difficult if not impossible assess and.
I don’t know if that is the issue in your circimstance. Just a thought. It sounds like the SOL has run in your issue in any case, so you may be SOL.
Late to this thread, but GMC is correct; from the media reports, the instructions were faulty; the evidence as to what the excess costs to Westar were was not presented, either clearly or at all; and, overall, sounds like a not so good job by the prosecutors. BTW, this case does illustrate the difficulty in trying a “white collar crime” case.
And, RustyFord and others, as the federal bench is a lifetime appointment (for Article III courts), there is no need to raise campaign contributions, etc., so I doubt any of the learned judges on the 10th Circuit were “paid off”.