Rubén Hinojosa: “Recent corporate scandals, including Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Merck, Rite-Aid, Xerox, and so many other corporations have…”

“Recent corporate scandals, including Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Merck, Rite-Aid, Xerox, and so many other corporations have demonstrated the need for our government to take action and bring order, justice, and trust back to our Nation's corporate infrastructure. Criminal practices put in place by high-paid executives demonstrate irresponsibility, hurt investors and employees, jeopardize innocent rank-and-file-worker pensions and retirement systems, and must come to an end. We need to send strong legislation from this House that will make crooked accounting, cooked financial records, and careless corporate executives a thing of the past. To do this effectively, we must craft legislation that puts fear in would-be corporate criminals. Stiff prison sentences for white collar criminals are a must and not an option. High-level executives who have defrauded investors, misled employees, and mismanaged company pension funds must be held accountable. I support legislation that requires honest accounting, independent investment advice, sensible regulation, and criminal penalties for those guilty of wrongdoing. We cannot have economic growth without eliminating corporate crime.”