[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 103 (Thursday, July 25, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H5459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CROOKED EXECUTIVES

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we watched on television as several 
crooked corporate executives were arrested and carted off to jail by 
Bush administration officials. I have no doubt that there will be more 
arrests before long.
  These are the very worst kind of crooks. They tricked investors, 
stole from employees, and robbed from retirees. They should go to jail 
and stay there for a very long time and their ill-gotten gains should 
be taken back from them. I mean their mansions, their yachts, and their 
private airplanes, all of which were bought with money that they got 
through fraud. And I think we all need to take a look at what led to 
the scandals in the first place. The excesses of the decade of the '90s 
clearly got out of hand; so much so, in fact, that decade is well known 
as the decade of irresponsibility. And national leaders like the 
chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who made $18 million 
from a $100,000 investment in Global Crossing and then knew to get out 
just in exactly the same time all the crooked executives got out, 
should think about the example they set.
  But at the end of the day, President Bush and the law enforcement 
bodies under his command will come down hard on these corporate crooks. 
And that will be a powerful deterrent.

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