Justice Served Up February 28, 2012
How Brits View our Justice System - Chris Tappin (65), a retired U.K. citizen, was escorted to the United States over the weekend to stand trial for his role in exporting military-grade batteries to Iran. He was caught in a fictitious company sting operated by U.S. Immigration officials. The U.K. is in an uproar over Tappin's extradition to face trial in El Paso, TX. This is going to be an interesting story that I'll be covering in Forbes.
Federal Prisoners Soon To Be Allowed To Have MP-3 Players - Many federal prisoners have small radios, Walkman, which is primarily used to watch television. There are multiple televisions in a large viewing room and each television transmits a low-grade signal to the local viewing audience/inmate. It makes for civil discourse by not fighting over volume to view a show. Now the Bureau of Prisons is considering a policy of allowing inmates to have their own MP3 players with music they download on a local computer at the prison. The BOP says that it will not cost the tax payers any money....meaning that inmates will foot the bill for the device and the music they buy. Some company is making money off of this, so don't think this is being done for the benefit of inmates. A BOP spokesman said it will help inmates overcome "stress and boredom."
Allen Stanford Defense Team Rests - The trial of Allen Stanford came to a close yesterday when the defense team rested its case without calling its promised, star witness....Mr. Stanford. Many defense attorneys claim that they will put their client on the stand but in the end claim that since the prosecution presented such a weak case that it was not necessary. Closing arguments are set for Wednesday and the jury could get the case by the end of the week.
Michael Douglas in Wall Street III - In a short public service announcement, Michael Douglas (aka Gordon Gekko), encourages people who have knowledge of insider trading activity to step forward. The FBI was behind the ad and did not pay Douglas for the appearance. The commercial is part of the latest move by prosecutors to step up enforcement of securities laws that have led to 64 people being arrested in cases brought in the Southern District of NY (Operation Perfect Hedge). In related news, the FBI says that it has a five-year backlog on investigations on insider trading as a result of the cases they have brought to date. More sleepless nights for some hedge fund managers!
