Entering the same league as Enron's

Summary: How Microsoft staff engaged in insider trading while the company taunted Yahoo! (before entryism was complete)

Several years ago we wrote about insider trading at Microsoft. Nobody goes to jail despite a lot of money getting stolen using fraud. It seems like wearing a suit and calling oneself an "executive" is now immunity against jail terms.

Todd Bishop says that amid the destruction of Yahoo by Microsoft some people in Microsoft made a killing and even Microsoft's actions acknowledge this:

Microsoft has put an unidentified employee on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation related to charges of insider trading against a financial analyst who allegedly received advance word about the company’s Yahoo search partnership agreement in 2009. The charges are connected to the high-profile case against SAC Capital Advisors.

The Redmond company, which has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case, said in a statement, “As a company we have zero tolerance for insider trading, and we assisted the government with this investigation. We have strict policies that prohibit insider trading, and we expect our employees to adhere to them.”

Lies therein and other PR which is BS. The company is all about financial fraud. This is a rigged market and Microsoft participates in the rigging, with financial fraud going even decades back.

For those who are not sufficiently familiar with Microsoft, the above PR statement might seem reasonable, even a legitimate defence. But Microsoft is a criminal corporation with a long record of crime, including financial offences, so it deserves no tolerance from regulators.

So, will anyone go too jail this time around? Unlikely. White-collar crime has cells only for some scapegoats and symbolic sacrifices like Madoff. Goldman Sachs is free, despite 'pulling a Madoff' at a vastly higher scale of magnitude. Enron's corrupt CEO Jeffrey Skilling (shown at the top) is almost released now, showing that sacrifices too get pardoned providing they're called "executives". ⬆