[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14244]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PUNISH CORRUPT CEO'S AND ACCOUNTANTS

  (Mr. ISRAEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, as a New Yorker I know that on the hottest 
ticket on Broadway has been a comedy, The Producers. The tragedy with 
recent financial scandals is that we are running the plot line of The 
Producers in real life.
  In The Producers, the accountant, Leo Bloom, is sent to conduct an 
independent audit of the producer, Max Bialystock. Bialystock begs the 
accountant to find a way to fudge the books to enhance his earnings. So 
the accountant finds a way to sell 2,000 percent of stock options in 
Bialystock's company, losing his independence and becoming part of a 
scam.
  The difference is only on Broadway and in the movies do the 
accountants and CEO's go to jail. In real life, no one has gone to 
jail, no personal bankruptcies in senior management, no disgorgements, 
no accountability. Just victims who have lost it all.
  Unlike in The Producers, no one is laughing, not our senior citizen, 
not our middle class families who are watching their children's tuition 
funds disappear, not hard-working taxpayers who have to put their 
retirements on hold. The American dream is turning into an American 
tragedy right before our eyes and no one is laughing.

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