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Adelphia frauds get a new home... jail

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For all of you who were negatively affected one way or another from the Adelphia shenanigans back in the early part of this decade, justice is finally being served by the two ring leaders in the Adelphia fraud case, John and Timothy Rigas.

John Rigas, aged 82, and his son Timothy Rigas, 51, were convicted on numerous charges of securities and bank fraud back in 2004, but have spent the past few years free as they have tried to drag on their appeals case. Luckily, these two corrupt executives were finally forced to face the music, and were admitted to a low security jail in North Carolina this morning.

In case you forget the details of this case, let's quickly summarize. Adelphia led its employees and investors to believe that all was well with the telecommunication giant until heads turned at a "little" footnote that the company attached to a press release sent out in 2001. The "little" footnote was the company's way of disclosing the fact that it had accumulated billions of dollars of liabilities that it had not previously decided to disclose.

These liabilities turned out to be serious amounts of assets that were mis-used as family resources. The total unreported liabilities added up to slightly under $2.3 billion. Just a little omission, I'm sure investors and employees can forgive a little omission of $2.3 billion in liabilities.

John Rigas has been sentenced to serve 15 years behind bars, and Timothy is set to serve 20 years for his part in the fraud. Both are hoping to get new trials, and even wish to have their case taken straight to the Supreme Court.


Maybe they will win another day in court... who knows. But for now, all of you who felt the sting of their actions can sleep a little easier tonight knowing these two will be sleeping in far less comfortable quarters than you or I.

It is definitely interesting to observe how disgraced executives in different cultures react to their failures. Compare the shameless attempt by these two to squirm their way back to freedom with the news from earlier today about the fate of the Chinese executive who ran the company responsible for all the Mattel product recalls earlier this month. I am not suggesting that the Rigases follow the Chinese example, but at least the two could have enough honor to admit they were wrong, and take their medicine.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 10:28 PM

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