"...this does not mean that the Sentencing Guidelines for white-collar crimes should be a black stain on common sense."

For these two brothers common sense prevailed:

Two brothers facing 30 years to life under federal sentencing guidelines for their roles in a securities fraud scheme received five-year sentences Thursday.

In departing downward from the minimum recommended sentence by 25 years, Eastern District of New York Judge Frederic Block issued a 21-page opinion -- the longest sentencing memorandum of the senior judge's career -- highly critical of the guidelines' "fetish with absolute arithmetic."

"[W]e now have an advisory guidelines regime where, as reflected by this case, any officer or director of virtually any public corporation who has committed securities fraud will be confronted with a guidelines calculation either calling for or approaching lifetime imprisonment," Block wrote in People v. Parris, 05-CR-636.

Criminalizing Failure - Bear Bigs Get Sherman McCoy Treatment

A weak case indeed for the State and so they are giving both defendants the full Sherman McCoy treatment, including a full perp-walk with handcuffs. As is common with white-collar cases, the State plans on winning in the media and using the full resources of the taxpayer to crush the defendants into submission; no trial is planned.

The well-worn playbook for beating up white collar defendants is as follows: (1) toss everything but the kitchen sink into the indictment, not that the State plans on proving it; it’s just a bargaining tactic for the inevitable settlement, (2) details that were so flimsy (and these must be flimsy indeed if they were not included in the indictment) or unrelated to the case will be leaked to the media. It will be no surprise to see out of context email excerpts in the next few weeks related to affairs, high salaries, favoritism, etc., (3) If the defendants are rich or foolhardy enough not to settle, the State will certainly punish them for exercising their right to a trial. At this point both defendants’ careers on Wall Street are over, even if they are found not guilty. If they win they will be broke and unemployable – one way or another, the State always wins.

"In a free country a government agency should not be able to destroy people without due process. "

Unfortunately,initiating a civil suit in might as well be a guilty sentence for someone who works in the securities industry. Although, the SEC cannot bring criminal charges like the Justice Department, they have just as much discretion to destroy someone. Here is what an innocent man had to say after the fact:

Once the SEC initiated a Wells Notice process against Mr. Leighton it became impossible for John Leighton to work in the securities industry. The SEC drained his life savings by making it unbearably expensive to defend himself. It tried to force him out of the securities industry and put his firm out of business before he had a chance to defend himself. While we are very pleased that truth has prevailed, the sad fact is that John Leighton lost three years of his life defending himself that he can never recover. He lost three years of work that he can never recover. He spent large amounts on defense costs and supporting his family while unemployed that he can never recover. His family has suffered financially and emotionally and can never fully recover from that. His good name has been smeared and he can only hope that this decision will over time restore his name.

Under our current system, you are guilty of SEC charges until you prove yourself innocent. That is wrong.