Nacchio really an American hero
Reprinted from the Rocky Mountain News Article at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/29/nacchio-really-an-american-hero/
Free Joe Nacchio!
If we lived in the 19th century, former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio might already have been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Or possibly have been elected governor, since the tycoons of flexible ethics got away with quite a bit in that era.
But in this 21st century, Joe Nacchio has the benefit of the deliberate speed of American justice, which gives us time to look a little closer at the man before they bang the door on his cell.
Nacchio defends himself on appeal, saying that he sold his stock not on insider information that it would fall, but in the belief it would rise, on the basis of business deals struck with the nation’s national security infrastructure. He claims these deals were later canceled when Qwest, in the person of Nacchio himself, declined to break the law in submitting customer records to warrantless scrutiny by the NSA.
I find this explanation at least worthy of a spy novel, if not of a reversal of the verdict. But one thing is clear: Nacchio, parts of whom are apparently made of brass, told the NSA to go peddle its papers in some other jurisdiction when they broke the law and violated the Constitution of the United States.
And that’s worth something these days. Maybe Joe can pay back, to the best of his ability, those sad pensioners whose pockets he effectively picked, whether he meant to or not. But he shouldn’t go to jail. Crook or no, he’s an American hero.
- Jack Woehr, Golden
December 30th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Posted by HolierThanThou:
At the least, Nacchio deserves a new trail. He told the government to stick it up the kazoo when they wanted to illegally spy on Qwest customers. That alone is not relevant to his wrongful conviction. What is relevant is that the government withheld information that would have helped his defense. After Nacchio denied the spies access to his customers’ calls, the feds dropped contract negotiations that were pending with Qwest. That caused a huge loss of revenue. It contributed to the telecom bust.
The government said they wouldn’t hand over that bidding and contract information at Nacchio’s trail. Only a proven fool would believe that the government was withholding that for national security purposes. They’re hiding it to bust Nacchio. Any judge with the least bit of integrity will rule that either the government must cough up the bidding information or vacate Nacchio’s conviction.
Then the shareholders and employees of Qwest can sue the be-Jesus out of the government lackeys and spy-jobs who crashed their company into a wall.