Jim Sensenbrenner: “9 days ago on this floor I stated we must crack down on the corporate criminals and rebuild America's confidence in our…”

“9 days ago on this floor I stated we must crack down on the corporate criminals and rebuild America's confidence in our markets. I said the best way to do that is to punish the corporate wrongdoers and to punish them harshly. I am pleased to say that the conference committee report before us today accomplishes that goal. The House members of the conference committee insisted on and prevailed on all of the tougher penalties that were contained in H.R. 5118, the Corporate Fraud Accountability Act of 2002, which passed the House overwhelmingly by a vote of 391 to 28. Under these penalty provisions, corporate criminals are going to do time; real time, real long time. The report increases the penalties for mail and wire fraud from the current 5 years to 20 years and creates a new securities fraud section that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years. It also strengthens laws that criminalize document shredding and other forms of obstruction of justice and provides a maximum penalty of 20 years for such violation. The legislation punishes top corporate executives that certify the financial statements of the company knowing they are false by subjecting them to fines of up to $5 million and 20 years in prison, or both.”