Andy Fastow Was Jewish and Therefore, Innocent?

While trying to find out the machinations that went into former Enron CFO Andy Fastow’s scandalously short prison sentence, I found an archival copy of a story in the New York Timeswhich quotes Judge Hoyt, who sentenced Fastow, saying that though Fastow had “drunk the wine of greed,” he had also been the “subject of great persecution,” including anti-Semitic slurs and personal threats.

Not to be unduly insensitive to racial slurs, but so what? What impact does widespread revulsion have on his requirement to serve time for his bad acts? Also, I’d like to know the evidence behind that particular proclamation.

But what’s more, the judge gave Fastow credit for caring for his two young sons while their mother, Lea Fastow, served a year in jail due to Mr. Fastow’s criminal activities. From the NYT article, “Judge Hoyt acknowledged Mr. Fastow’s devotion to his family and community service and his efforts to redress his crimes at Enron. “The best evidence of remorse is what you do going forward,” Judge Hoyt said.”

This reminds me of Jeff Skilling departing Enron because he wanted to spend more time with his family. His children, too, lost their father. His wife remains at home without her husband. Yet there was no consideration at all for them when a different judge (Judge Sim Lake) sentenced Skilling to over 24 years in federal prison.

Jeff isn’t Jewish, so he didn’t have anti-Semitic slurs to bolster his arguments for a lighter sentence, but he certainly was reviled by the community.    In his sentencing hearing, his former assistant tells of being in a restaurant when somebody confronted Skilling, claiming to have lost millions.  Other stories of rudeness, threats, and outright hostility pervaded Skilling’s years between the collapse of Enron and his final sentencing.   Yet none of that counted for much in the mind of the sentencing judge.

What is it about being Jeff Skilling that is so inexcusable?   And in contrast,  how is it that Andy Fastow can be so admittedly guilty while also being treated with kid gloves?  I’m sure that it has to do with his willingness to sell his soul, but I thought prosecutors and judges were above politics.  I thought they were pure, seeking only the truth – the unvarnished truth.   They made themselves into the Andy Fastow Fan Club and for that, they deserve shame.  Not Jeff Skilling, or any of the other executives who pleaded guilty to avoid Skilling’s fate.   But the prosecutors and judges who looked at these two men – Fastow and Skilling – and saw more sanctity in Fastow.  

During Jeff Skilling’s appeal in New York, the Task Force prosecutor Doug Wilson actually said that Fastow got a shorter sentence because of “his character.”   Let that sink in a moment.  Realize exactly what the US government identifies as character.   And realize what, in Skilling, they scorn.