Comment MicroSoft, stock manipulation and RICO law suits (Score 1) 45
The really really interesting angle about the earnings manipulation story is not that MicroSoft does it, and that the SEC may slap them on the wrists, but that it opens up MicroSoft to a RICO suit. For those of you who dont know what RICO's are, RICO's are anti-racketeering cases.
I've been saying for years that the only real way of stopping MicroSoft is a RICO. The DOJ's anti-trust cases will slow them down but never stop them.
RICO's are beautiful beasts. All you have to do is show a pattern of criminal behavour, you dont have to prove any of the individual charges. And one of the three activities that triggers a RICO is manipulating stock prices. That's how they got the junk bond king Michal Milliken. One year in the mid-80's he was paying himself $550M, three years later he was in jail. If Michael Milliken can go to jail then so can Bill Gates. Gates has more enemies, and more powerful enemies, than Milliken ever had. And MicroSofts pattern of criminal behavour of the last 20 years is very well documented.
It will be a few years before some Federal DA with political asperations launches a RICO attack on MicroSoft (whatever happened to that DA guy Guilliani who brough the case against Milliken...), but when they do, the fur will really start flying. Dont be to suprised if Gates flees the country to his $10M+ house in London.
I think its time to start a MicroSoft RICO Watch web site..
I've been saying for years that the only real way of stopping MicroSoft is a RICO. The DOJ's anti-trust cases will slow them down but never stop them.
RICO's are beautiful beasts. All you have to do is show a pattern of criminal behavour, you dont have to prove any of the individual charges. And one of the three activities that triggers a RICO is manipulating stock prices. That's how they got the junk bond king Michal Milliken. One year in the mid-80's he was paying himself $550M, three years later he was in jail. If Michael Milliken can go to jail then so can Bill Gates. Gates has more enemies, and more powerful enemies, than Milliken ever had. And MicroSofts pattern of criminal behavour of the last 20 years is very well documented.
It will be a few years before some Federal DA with political asperations launches a RICO attack on MicroSoft (whatever happened to that DA guy Guilliani who brough the case against Milliken...), but when they do, the fur will really start flying. Dont be to suprised if Gates flees the country to his $10M+ house in London.
I think its time to start a MicroSoft RICO Watch web site..
