United Health's former CEO pleads ignorance

In an effort to get a shareholder class-action lawsuit related to options backdating at United Health (NYSE: UNH) dismissed, former CEO William McGuire is claiming that, gee, golly, he just didn't know much about them fancydangled options. He's just a doctor!

The Star Tribune reports that his lawyers have filed a brief stating, in part, that "Dr. McGuire has no formal training or degrees in finance, accounting or law. His only professional training is as a medical doctor with a specialty in pulmonology."

Interesting. I wonder whether Mr. McGuire argued that he should be given a smaller compensation than other CEOs because he had no training in anything related to business. I somehow doubt it. The "I have no idea what happened! I don't know anything! I'm an idiot!" defense has become quite common in white-collar crime cases. After making a variation on mark-to-market accounting a prerequisite for joining Enron, former CEO Jeff Skilling later claimed that he "wasn't an accountant" in defending the fraudulent practices of the company.

At some point, the top men in charge have to be responsible for fraudulent conduct at their companies. If he didn't understand the accounting, he should have made it his business to understand it. He was the CEO.