the phoenix four

cm1179 · 8 May 2011 at 21:12

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-13326666

being a midlander this has been on the local news although i'm quite sure it made the national too.
should these low lifes not have gone to jail? paying themselves ridiculous amounts of money and playing a massive part in the downfall of the company and putting lots of people out of work?

[TW]Fox · 8 May 2011 at 21:13

Go to jail for what, exactly?

The Serious Fraud Office dismissed the notion of criminal charges against the quartet in 2009

Noxia · 8 May 2011 at 21:13

Yeah they committed no crime.

Skull · 8 May 2011 at 21:18

Noxia said:
Yeah they committed no crime.

Yeah but they made money while the company went bust, they should be in jail! Burn a banker!

Stormyx · 8 May 2011 at 21:21

cm1179 · 8 May 2011 at 21:54

so, if they had gone to jail for this. would you have been surprised?

Angilion · 8 May 2011 at 22:46

They gained a position of control in a business and used it to enrich themselves. What's new about that? It's the whole point of having the top positions.

ash_scotland88 · 8 May 2011 at 23:05

Noxia said:
Yeah they committed no crime.

And bad mistakes, they've made a few

dowie · 8 May 2011 at 23:12

Angilion said:
They gained a position of control in a business and used it to enrich themselves. What's new about that? It's the whole point of having the top positions.

Not really to the extent they did. It might not be illegal but it is a bit borderline and certainly very unethical.

Look up Dennis Kozlowski - he got jail time for larceny after essentially deciding to pay himself rather a lot of money whilst acting as CEO of Tyco and still asserts that everything he did was legitimate.

cm1179 · 8 May 2011 at 23:15

i'd say it's more than borderline, i'd put it under the phrase ''if that's not a crime, i don't know what is''. if this country grew a pair and started to change the laws and make examples of people who think this is a right thing to do the maybe they'd stop doing it.
they're crooks in my eyes, crooks should go to jail.

sigma · 8 May 2011 at 23:17

Angilion said:
They gained a position of control in a business and used it to enrich themselves. What's new about that? It's the whole point of having the top positions.

I thought directors must act in the best interest of the company and not personally benefit from something as a result of the knowledge they gained through the company.

I think they're allowed to if they declare the profit to the company though, did that happen in this case?

dowie · 8 May 2011 at 23:29

cm1179 said:
i'd say it's more than borderline, i'd put it under the phrase ''if that's not a crime, i don't know what is''. if this country grew a pair and started to change the laws and make examples of people who think this is a right thing to do the maybe they'd stop doing it.
they're crooks in my eyes, crooks should go to jail.

Small problem of evidence tbh... failing to run a company isn't a crime and paying your girlfriend 1.6 million to act as a translator is a bit dubious but not necessarily illegal. Deleting lots off documents off your hard drive so that investigators have a hard time pinning stuff on you is also rather dodgy.

Perhpas if certain files hadn't disappeared then there might have been charges - I guess most people would probably consider these characters a bit dodgy but then again well known mobsters in big new york crime families are generally considered a bit dodgy it doesn't mean we can just go locking people up - you still need sufficient evidence of an actual crime being committed and I doubt we've got that with these four.