In his Feb. 18 column, Charles Krauthammer asserts that by destroying the value of Enron, the market has delivered a swift and sure punishment to Enron. The concept of punishment, to me, carries an essentially personal meaning and I find its use in regard to an impersonal corporation a skewed perspective.
The essence of the Enron-Andersen scandal is that a few individuals, through greed and deception, perpetrated significant harm on thousands of individuals–employees, stockholders, mutual fund investors and the entire free market system. Whether ever proven as criminal, the fact remains these individuals did knowingly engage in activities ultimately destined to harm many other individuals.
A second point that Krauthammer totally ignores is that the possibility of criminal fraud has not been ruled out. It may have been made more difficult to prove as a result of destruction of evidence, but they will be judged. It is the people, good and bad, not the corporation who deserve justice.
