It’s In The Bag

The mail is always fun around here (when we’re not in any sort of hot water). Here’s a message from a curious reader who asks a great question. It’s about one of the defendants indicted in this week’s FCPA mega bust.

We think he’s right but we’d like to hear from other readers too.

 

From: sundar narayanan
Date: January 21, 2010
To: The FCPA Blog
Subject: Re: Lee Allen Tolleson

Dear FCPA Blog,

I believe the recently indicted Lee Allen Tolleson, 25, is the youngest indivual ever indicted for an FCPA offense.

I’d like to know if there are any people younger than him indicted in the past for violating the FCPA.

Regards
Sundar. N

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Still on the subject of the mega bust. Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State Law School and formerly of the White Collar Crime Prof Blog, has a terrific post on the New York Times White Collar Watch. He talks about the tactics used to nail the 22 FCPA defendants:

. . . Undercover stings in white-collar cases are controversial because the defendants are generally law-abiding citizens, unlike those dealing in drugs or stolen property who can hardly complain that they are unwary innocents. After Abscam, Congress considered legislation to require prior approval for undercover operations as a means to limit the discretion of prosecutors and investigative agencies to use a sting to cases in which there was some basis to believe the target was willing to engage in criminal activity before the investigation began. The legislation never advanced, and undercover stings have been used successfully in public corruption cases, like Operation Greylord in Chicago, which resulted in the conviction of a number of judges and lawyers working in the Cook County courts. . . .

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Hard words for the president. From Mort Zuckerman, the chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. Writing this week in the Daily Beast:

He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.

This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.

In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting. . . .

I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.