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Prognostications on Wall Street prosecutions

By Mark Obbie

Roger Parloff's cover story in the Jan. 19 issue of Fortune is the perfect antidote to the conventional wisdom that "someone" should go to jail for the financial messes we're in. Perhaps many someones should, and will. But, as Parloff documents in his meticulous but readable way, the complicated realities make payback a fairly elusive prospect. After an engaging explanation of the central legal hooks that prosecutors might sink into wrongdoers, Parloff briefly surveys each of the central corporate players. He ends on an intriguing note that could serve as a jumping-off point to another interesting story: about the syndrome that places the greatest pressure on the first suspects (or victims) to surface, improving the odds for those who follow in their trail. As Parloff puts it, "Criminality is about deviance, so the more widespread undesirable conduct turns out to have been, the more difficult it becomes to treat it as criminal." Despite the story's length and complex subject matter, it's written for the smart layman -- and should be recommended reading for any such layman who soon starts ranting about why the architects of the meltdown aren't already in chains.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).