Quick Notes on the Black Trial

Well, law school is done, which means PLVQ can start (hopefully) posting with a degree of regularity once again.

I've been following with interest, in the little spare time I have, the trial of Lord Black in Chicago. While I don't have too much to add to the extensive and incisive ink-spilling over this trial, today, notably, the prosecution dropped a charge of money laundering against Black, on the eve of the close of its case.

While most (all?) of those executives who have been implicated in recent American financial scandals (Enron, Worldcom, etc.) have engaged in fraudulent activities - misstating profits, par example - there are little if any analogous allegations in the case against Black and his co-accused, and no evidence has been presented to date at the trial that places Black in the class of individuals like Bernie Ebbers.

After introducing an unimpressive array of witnesses - whose collective feet have been placed at the fire by Edward Greenspan, one of the most recognised and effective cross-examiners among the Canadian bar - one cannot help but wonder whether the prosecution (and the U.S. government) have gone one trial too far in their crusade to enforce certain standards of "corporate governance" within American corporations.

If Lord Black is ultimately exonerated, it hopefully will give the American government an opportunity to reflect upon whether it is really its role to "protect" shareholders from the day-to-day business transactions of executives, or whether its many intercessions have resulted in the destruction of value for shareholders (through the public fallout from investigations, prosecutions, and the like) rather than its protection - which such forays into courtrooms purport to advance.