Posted on 08/11/2002 5:30:00 PM PDT by ArcLight
On April 13, 1938, Richard Whitney -- president of the New York Stock Exchange and personification of Wall Street aristocracy -- entered New York's Sing Sing Prison in handcuffs to begin a five- to 10-year sentence for embezzling millions of dollars from his clients. On the same day, his wife was reduced to begging a bankruptcy referee to return a few items of her personal jewelry taken to satisfy creditors.
Justice for corporate crooks was swift and severe in those middle years of the New Deal. Whitney went to prison just five weeks after the Exchange announced it had found evidence of misconduct. Even before he was behind bars, authorities were moving to sell off his Manhattan town house, New Jersey hunt country estate and thoroughbred horses to pay those he had cheated.
For me, the harsh standards of corporate accountability then in force remain unusually vivid to this day. Whitney loomed like a shadow over my childhood and youth, for my father was one of his partners and suffered the consequences. Though my father did not know Whitney was engaging in embezzlement, he was fully liable for Whitney's debts under the prevailing partnership and bankruptcy laws. All my parents' assets, down to many of the dresses and coats in my mother's closet, were seized and sold at a bankruptcy auction to raise money for Whitney's creditors (including widows and orphans of former Stock Exchange employees whose benefit fund Whitney raided for his own investments).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"What? Where's the gardener? I can't water!!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.