Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime

That was Rudolph Giuliani, then U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. At the time, he was prosecuting the likes of Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and Marc Rich. President Clinton later pardoned Marc Rich. Apparently Marc Rich’s wife was dumping big cash into the Clinton library. Rudy is now solidly in the hands of the corporate crime lobby. He prosecuted corporate crime as a way to achieve higher office. Then he learned one of the key lessons of corporate crime prosecution. You can achieve higher office by prosecuting corporate crime. But as you move up the ladder, you have to make nice with the corporate powers that be. And so you turn your attention and rhetoric to various forms of street crime. Now, Rudy is ready to be President. So, corporate crime lesson number one – prosecute corporate crime to achieve higher office, then prosecute street crime to protect your political position. Or to simplify it, corporate crime is all about power politics. And the corporate crime game is a bi-partisan affair – it is played the same by Democrats and Republicans alike. Eliot Spitzer, the former Attorney General of New York, prosecuted corporate crime to achieve higher office. And now as Governor of New York, Spitzer is making nice with Wall Street. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Corporate Crime Reporter, I present to you the Top 20 Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime. With a tip of the hat to David Letterman, let us proceed. Number 20 Corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/13/1859/ [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 15, 2007]

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