Posted 10:02 AM

Scapegoats and fallguys

Frank Quattrone is sleazy, probably unethical and certainly a poster boy for the excesses of the dot-com bubble. But only because the judge and the Prosecutor Played Fast and Loose with the truth and the law was he convicted of obstruction of justice.

Quattrone did not violate any law when he forwarded an email to those working with and for him. While he may not be "innocent" in the colloquial sense, he certainly is in the legal sense and the quicker an appeals court hears this case the better off we will all be.

Some will compare this to the Martha Stewart trial and wonder why I feel she's guilty and he isn't. The difference is that Stewart broke a law which she should have known about (she was on the Board of Directors of the NYSE after all) while Quattrone did not break any law. Simple as that. Motives, emotions, sexual politics, blah, blah, blah - all irrelevant.