YMMV
Paul Humphreys, the former CFO of Safety-Kleen hazardous waste disposal company, was sentenced to almost six years in prison after pleading guilty to securities and bank fraud charges. The $267 million fraud occurred between 1998 and 2000, and involved artificially inflating earnings to meet earnings targets and manipulate the stock price.
Bernard “Bernie” Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom, was convicted on nine criminal counts related to the company’s $11 billion accounting fraud. He received 25 years in prison.
Martha Stewart received a sentence of five months in prison, and almost six months of home confinement after her conviction on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements related to a personal sale of ImClone Systems stock.
Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron CEO, received a sentence of more than 24 years in prison following his conviction on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, and lying to auditors.
The one thing that all of these sentences have in common is that they have a very wide range.
How do we decide what is really fair in white-collar crime cases? Of course the amount of money lost by innocent victims plays a part in sentencing. Naturally, mitigating factors play a part too, as defendants tout their charity work, clean criminal histories, and repentance.
It is common to hear of cases of embezzlement or other corporate fraud in which the perpetrators receive what appears to be unusually light sentences. Yet there is really no clear line between fair and unfair when discussing sentences for white-collar crimes.