evolution

A few days ago, I told you about the federal convictions of former Westar Energy executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake on a number corporate malfeasance charges. In addition to their inevitable prison sentences, the two will have to forfeit a huge chunk of their assets:

After convicting two former Westar Energy Inc. executives of looting the company, a jury on Thursday declined to order them to cough up all of their allegedly ill-gotten gains.

The federal jury ordered David Wittig, Westar’s former chairman and chief executive, and Douglas Lake, its former chief strategic officer, to forfeit some but not all of their property to the federal government.

In returning a mixed verdict, the jury refused to heed prosecutor Rich Hathaway’s plea to force the men to fork over all the pay and benefits they received during their tenures at the Topeka-based company, the largest electric utility in Kansas.

But they did order Wittig to turn over his home, the historic Alf Landon mansion in Topeka, as well as his signing bonus and other benefits worth about $6 million.

“It’s obvious the jury rejected the government’s excessive argument that every penny these defendants earned during their years of employment was forfeitable,” Lake’s attorney, Ed Little, said afterward. “They appeared to have ordered forfeited only those items they believed were directly linked to the specific fraudulent conduct they apparently found.”

“However,” Little added, “we’re distressed by the original verdict and intend to vigorously pursue an appeal to the 10th Circuit.”

Jim Cross, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren, said neither Melgren nor Hathaway, the lead prosecutor in the case, would comment on the forfeiture decision.

All I can say is, “Good.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 17th, 2005 at 17:41 and is filed under freedom, news/media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.