I'm nowhere near 'smug' about her. Believe me. I just cant believe someone as smart as she is could be so serially dumb.
She should never have owned stock in a close friends company.
If she did it should have been through a blind trading agreement.
She probably shouldnt have been personally managing her money in the first place.
She definitely shouldnt have been fiddling around with the shares almost certainly knowing about the bad news.
But the two big problems have nothing to do with the stock sale or whether or not she was lying.
She was an ass to the 'little people', and even her friends. Key witnesses for and against her were her administrator (who had to pick up her dogs crap off the carpets at MSO every day), one of her friends (who she charged for half of their vacations together and then expensed the whole thing to MSO), and her brokers assistant (who she dressed down for issues as weighty as the music on hold selections).
The biggest problem was flipping off the cops. During the first several meetings, she dismissed them part way through their questioning by telling them "I'm sorry, I dont have any more time for this, I have a business to run".
Here's an analogous scenario. You go out to lunch with your administrator, a suppliers sales person, your mechanic and one of your friends. You run a yellow light and get stopped by the cops. While the cop is asking you for your paperwork, you tell him "I'm sorry, I have a meeting to go to..." and you take off.
Pretty much guarantees you're going to be arrested, right?
After this, the DA comes in and says "ok, how about we just give you a little fine, you dont even have to admit any wrongdoing, and we leave it at that and put it behind us".
Would your response at this point be that you would like to take your chances with a jury because you are completely innocent?
At this point here are your witnesses for and against you at trial. Your friend has recently found out that you've been taking her money for her share of your lunches together and you've been pocketing it and expensing the meal with the company. Your mechanic is a guy who you regularly yell at and treat like a piece of crap. Your administrator is someone you treat like a red headed stepchild. Your suppliers sales rep is someone you bully and scream at over things that arent even in his control.
When you're found guilty by a jury of your peers, having had the full and complete benefit of the very best defense and legal assistance, you still proclaim your innocence.
Then although sentencing guidelines suggest something in the 2-3 year range, you get 5 months at 'camp cupcake' and another 5 months of house arrest at one of your estates.
Lets just forget about the facts that the results of this mess cost MSO stockholders hundreds of millions of dollars, and the taxpayers millions to prosecute and now an extra hundred thousand or so to pay for her prison stay.
I'd say there are some good lessons here we can all take under consideration: treat everyone with respect, especially the cops because they have a ridiculous amount of power over and potentially against you.
It just cracks me up that everyones focus is on whether or not she had the insider information, whether or not she lied, or that she'd being treated unfairly because she's a woman executive.
Give me one big fat break. Considering the way she handled this, she got off pretty damn easy.
How about another analogy. An inner city kid holds up a store with a fake gun and gets $50. Gets caught by the cops. Admits he did it right away and takes a plea. Shows remorse. Says truthfully that he just needed the money to buy food for his starving family. Nobody was physically hurt. The economic impact was to one person for a small amount and they got their $50 back.
Do you think he gets 5 months at 'camp cupcake' and 5 months on a large estate?
By the way, I think interest rates are going to stop rising at this point, the economy is going to head downslope after the first of the year, and we may even see a quarter point cut in the first or second quarter of next year to help bring us out of the return to a recessionary pause...which will turn up again sometime in the late 3rd quarter of next year.
