{"id":128,"date":"2002-07-31T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2002-07-31T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/2002\/7\/crime_pays_big_government_take.html"},"modified":"2002-07-31T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2002-07-31T08:19:00","slug":"crime_pays_big_government_take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/2002\/07\/31\/crime_pays_big_government_take\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime pays big; government takes notice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OK, I&#8217;m sorry but someone needs to help me understand this.  I may be naive, but did we really need another, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2002\/07\/31\/business\/31BUSH.html\" title=\"Bush Signs Bill Aimed at Fraud in Corporations\" alt=\"Bush Signs Bill Aimed at Fraud in Corporations\" target=\"_blank\">special law<\/a> to let corporate entities know that they&#8217;re not allowed to steal from or lie to people?  I could have sworn that fraud already <b>was<\/b> illegal, just like larceny and homicide.  But clearly laws don&#8217;t normally apply in the corporate world, else it would be way too hard to make and pocket billions of dollars.  I have to wonder what this law actually says.  I mean, I realize it&#8217;s probably about 250 pages long and all, but what&#8217;s the gist?  How is it different from the other &#8216;thou-shalt-not-commit-fraud&#8217; laws currently on the books?  I&#8217;m thinking maybe something like:<\/p>\n<p><i>No stealing, lying, cheating, or other malfeasance.  No, really.  This means you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The best part, of course, is that the Dubya administration is already <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miami.com\/mld\/miami\/news\/politics\/3766835.htm\" title=\"Awww, guys!  We was just kiddin'!\" alt=\"Awww, guys!  We was just kiddin'!\" target=\"_blank\">reinterpreting the law they just signed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And another precious little tidbit from this morning&#8217;s news: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibm.com\" title=\"Big Blue\" alt=\"Big Blue\" target=\"_blank\">IBM<\/a> is buying <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwcglobal.com\/\" title=\"#3\" alt=\"#3\" target=\"_blank\">Pricewaterhouse Coopers&#8217;<\/a> consulting arm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwcconsulting.com\/us\/pwccons.nsf\/viewwebpages\/News-NewsReleasesIBMBuy\" alt=\"the Press Release\" title=\"the Press Release\" target=\"_blank\">[press release]<\/a>.  Well, PwC also happens to do IBM&#8217;s auditing.  Guess who&#8217;s going to do the auditing after the purchase goes through (on all but the consulting arm, small comfort)?  Yup, that&#8217;s right: PwC!  And the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sec.gov\" alt=\"Who *are* these clowns, anyway?\" title=\"Who *are* these clowns, anyway?\" target=\"_blank\">SEC<\/a> approved this arrangement.  <a href=\"http:\/\/nytimes.com\/2002\/07\/31\/technology\/31CONS.html\" alt=\"Huge megaglobocorporation purchases crooked consulting firm; crooked firm to continue as auditor\" title=\"Huge megaglobocorporation purchases crooked consulting firm; crooked firm to continue as auditor\" target=\"_blank\">[NYTimes article]<\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>Heaven preserve us.  Somebody&#8217;s got to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK, I&#8217;m sorry but someone needs to help me understand this. I may be naive, but did we really need&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/custom-deluxe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}