Tom Udall: “It seems like every day we hear a new story of executives who misled their investors and their workers and stole…”

“It seems like every day we hear a new story of executives who misled their investors and their workers and stole millions of dollars. These executives are called irresponsible. They are accused of mismanagement or unorthodox business practices. But these corporate leaders are not unorthodox. They are criminals, plain and simple. They have stolen more money than any thieves I have ever heard of, and their crimes have real victims. The victims of these corporate crimes are workers like the workers at Enron who just wanted an honest job with a fair expectation of job security. For all their hard work, these workers got 10 minutes to clear out their desks. In some cases they were even denied their severance packages if they refused to sign documents giving up the right to sue Enron for defrauding them. Defrauding workers and forcing them to give up their legal rights is not irresponsibility; it is a crime. Even workers who never had anything to do with Enron were hurt by the collapse of that company. As Enron declared bankruptcy, public employees in 30 States lost anywhere from $1.5 billion to $10 billion from their pension plans. Stealing money from public employee pension plans is not irresponsibility; it is a crime. Even those of us who had absolutely nothing to do with the Enrons or WorldComs of the world are hurt by corporate crime.”