When a corporation is found guilty of crimes, why is the penalty only financial? Why don’t the decision makers in the company go to prison?
When a corporation is found guilty of crimes, why is the penalty only financial? Why don’t the decision makers in the company go to prison?
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A corporation is fined or restricted as punishment. If an individual is convicted of a crime they can go to prison. sometimes both things happen like with Jeffrey Sklling or Elizabeth Holmes. but you don’t send a person to prison because their employer committed a crime.
Legal system has been rigged that way in the West for 100 yrs or more
Before Sarbannes-Oxley (SOX), Paul O’Neill, Bush Jr’s treasury secretary, suggested executive liability as an effective means. It was not a popular opinion with Republicans
The people that write the laws are usually the people that directly benefit from them. They’re not going to risk putting themselves in prison. White collar crimes are legal for a price
If corporations are people, then corporations should face the same penalties as people
Because the USA is a corrupt, not for the people, fake democracy that’s really fascist.
that’s one of the main reasons for corporations. no accountability, only accountants.
The decision makers sometimes do go to prison. For instance, a person can be found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter if their actions lead to someone’s death.
Bernie Madoff, who was once the chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, went to prison for running a ponsi scheme via his otherwise legitimate investment firm.
In 2001, a huge utility company called Enron collapsed after it was discovered that the directors had hidden enormous losses. Several of them went to prison.
They do if they are found guilty of criminal activity. But the corporation is a separate entity. It is possible for a corporation to commit a crime even if no individual employee does.
They sometimes do when they commit crimes.
It depends on the nature of the crime. If the company’s business is just scam, or they conduct some other illegal activities like smuggling, they do go to jail.
Also depends what country you’re talking about.
Where I live directors and officers of companies can be prosecuted and the law allows them to be imprisoned. Safety violations are one example.
Ok partially political but not ment to be. Ok why do illegal aliens get deported when a raid happens at a company but the owners who hired them do not suffer any problems even though they hired them ?
As I said not trying to be political at all but seeing a big double standard
Sometimes they do. It all depends on the situation.
The prosecution would have to prove that an individual person in the company was willfully criminal in exercising his or her position for that to happen, much more difficult than just proving that a company broke the law.
It does happen from time to time.
Because it’s much easier to convince a guy to be fall guy and send him to prison and then financially compensate them in a different way
Financial penalties can hurt the bottomline of the company
It happens on occassion. Bernie Madoff and Elizabeth Holmes come to mind. But this is a really interesting question so I decided to ask ChatGPT about it. Here are some examples it stated.
Jeffrey Skilling (Enron)
Bernard “Bernie” Ebbers (WorldCom)
John Rigas & Timothy Rigas (Adelphia Communications)
Joseph Nacchio (Qwest Communications)
Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco International)
Martin Shkreli (Turing Pharmaceuticals)
Bernie Madoff (Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities)
I heard someone else put it something to the effect of: If the penalty for breaking a law is a fine, that law only exists for people who can’t afford it. I don’t know much about corporate law, but I think articles of incorporation also provide a sort of legal shield for individual employees. The corporation and its actions are treated as a legal entity separate from the individuals. Though of course, sometimes people do go to prison for white collar crime. But for every person that does, there are probably many more that get off with little personal consequence.
they do go to prison. I have a friend who did some time for wire fraud
Because they all belong to the Big Club and we aren’t in it.
Businesses can be placed on probation with requirements. Usually everything ties back to financial penalties but disolution can happen. Individuals can and are punished indopendently.
The real disconnect is not that individuals do not get punished but what seems like should be illegal but is not.
It’s literally called an LLC
Limited Liability Corporation
It’s kinda the point
There is a difference between civil and criminal charges. Most crimes that are brought against a corporation are civil, which is just financial consequence. Criminal charges are where jail time comes in.
The corporation is seen as a person or “entity” they can’t lock up an “entity” because it’s not real even if it is on paper, there’s no real person to lock up.
However! Yea idk why they don’t lock up board members. They lock up ppl for being accessory to crimes.