NY Times: Justice Dept Replacing Trials With Deals For Corporations

In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: April 9, 2008


WASHINGTON — 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.

Deferred prosecutions have become a favorite tool of the Bush administration. But some legal experts now wonder if the policy shift has led companies, in particular financial institutions now under investigation for their roles in the subprime mortgage debacle, to test the limits of corporate anti-fraud laws.

Firms have readily agreed to the deferred prosecutions, said Vikramaditya S. Khanna, a law professor at the University of Michigan who has studied their use, because “clearly it avoids a bigger headache for them.”

Some lawyers suggest that companies may be willing to take more risks because they know that, if they are caught, the chances of getting a deferred prosecution are good. “Some companies may bear the risk” of legally questionable business practices if they believe they can cut a deal to defer their prosecution indefinitely, Mr. Khanna said.

Legal experts say the tactic may have sent the wrong signal to corporations — the promise, in effect, of a get-out-of-jail-free card. The growing use of deferred prosecutions also suggests one road map the Justice Department might follow in the subprime mortgage investigations. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/washington/09justice.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=3b34a14a8f0f9971&ex=1365393600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1207713986-I3HBbNg5cQMKpbrxTWnABA&oref=slogin

act with impunity because justice has developed a case of selective blindness under Republican rule. Sickening.

"You hand over a big bunch of bucks and we'll let you go. We'll make a show at telling you to go and sin no more, but as long as you don't get caught again, everythings hunky dory. And even if you do, you can pay your way out of it, so don't worry. We need the money to finance our shennanigans so what's a little corruption amongst the totally corrupt?"

them cash up front, he doesn't have to go through a trial.

I'm sure they prefer this to having their dirty laundry aired in a court of law. But even that's a joke anymore with bush** appointees on the bench.

Setting an example for everyone.

I get the feeling that TPTB are going to be real sorry that they co-opted the Press.

See, you can buy off the Press with favoritism, or simply buy it outright, but then you lose all those readers who catch on to the degradation of the news coverage, and your propaganda doesn't penetrate public discussion.

But you can't buy off the Internet. And while shutting it down, or blocking it Chinese-style might seem attractive, too many businesses rely upon it to permit this to happen, even if the geeks wouldn't figure out ways to short circuit you in days, if not hours.

So, there is this many-headed Hydra, spilling Truth into the public ear for all to read, and the public is doing so, more and more each day. The People aren't stupid, in general, at least, not enough of them, despite the best efforts to poison all the wells of learning. After all, the Sheeple these PTB surround themselves with are a self-limiting bunch, devolving as we speak.

Crimes are becoming impossible to conceal. Some WWII crimes were hidden for 60+ years, that's 3 generations! Bush's crimes were discovered in the planning stages. The reason why these plans weren't stopped include:

1) too many powerful and self-important people materially benefited from these plans

2) too many ambitious people were complicit in these plans, either before or after the crimes

3) too many people couldn't believe anybody would subvert the Constitution, wipe out the armed forces, destroy the fundamentals of democracy, and even take out things of universal benefit, like the Food and Drug Administration. We didn't, couldn't, imagine that Americans would want to destroy America.

4) And then, there's Nancy Pelosi, who has earned her own special Ring in Hell.

The entire nation is run by corporatist crooks.

great article .....corp take over