Some of you may not remember much about Dennis Kozlowski, so take it from me: the guy was epic in his day. He was the most unapologetic abuser of corporate trust we'd seen up until that point and, where the Enron guys were mostly eggheads who just socked away their ill-gotten gains, Big D knew how to party. The guy was the Rob Ford of the Fortune 500.
There's no denying Kozlowski led a lavish lifestyle. His $30 million New York City apartment was allegedly paid for by the company. (The shower curtains alone, it was revealed in court, cost $6,000.) Tyco also footed half of the $2 million bill for an extravagant birthday party for Kozlowski's second wife in 2001. Disguised as a shareholder meeting, it took place on an Italian island and featured an ice sculpture of the Statue of David urinating Stolichnaya vodka. The bash—which became known as the Tyco Roman Orgy—probably didn't help his case. Kozlowski is currently serving up to 25 years in prison.
On Tuesday the parole board approved his petition to re-enter polite society after serving 100 months of his sentence. He's scheduled to be released in mid-January, and I for one am dying to see what he's going to do. If ever there was a guy who could reinvent himself and take the corporate world by storm, it's Dennis Kozlowski. I have a feeling someone is going to be willing to give him a shot, too.
American Greed did a whole episode on him, but of course the focus was on his wife's 40th birthday which was complete with a statue pissing vodka, human sculptures of Greek gods, and the musical stylings of Jimmy Buffett, all paid for by Tyco shareholders under the auspices of a "shareholder meeting":
This guy is absolutely classic. And he's a business genius to boot. Here's hoping he lands on his feet, because this is a redemption I'd like to see.
....and some dude caught with a dime bag three times is doing life in some places? American justice is a joke. It's official, I'm doing whatever the hell I want.
Hey now we gotta control the poors somehow.
Difference is this guy never hurt anyone. The dude you're describing could kill like 11 people on his pot fueled rampage.
OH BOY, when I think of a victimless crime like smoking a joint, I think of a guy beating his wife and then ripping off investors.
What planet you on?
LOL. I would give them both like 100k and see who throws a better party.
I was in college when he was sent to prison, so I remember him along with the Enron debacle well. Back then, Arthur Andersen went away and Sarbanes Oxley was created.
Someone takes aimless jokes way to seriously.
This makes me miss the good old days.
Seriously though, its nuts what corps can get away with compared to regular humans. Did anyone watch Jon Stewart last night?
Here is a link to the segment: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/12/05/recent-Blackstone-deal-in-focus-on-the-daily-show/
p.s. I take Stewart and any talking head's words with a grain of salt. But it's funny to listen to main street's opinion of WS.
Hey, if someone's right, they're right. Honestly, aside from scanning online headlines and industry info, Stewart's show is the closest thing to "watching the news" that I can do at this point. Funny thing is that he's a comedian and he's closer to the truth on so many things than regular "news". If other people want to live in an alternate understanding of reality, hey, now you see how religion works. As I write this, I realize I no longer have any desire to get people to see the truth of things. If they want to screw themselves over, I'm not going to stop them. Might as well profit from their dumb asses as they take themselves out of the gene pool.
Other thing is that "news" originated from the political propoganda machines of the founding years, and have never had any type of factual integrity as their primary goal.
Food for thought.
This interpretation of the Blackstone thing is pretty clearly garbage though.
Man if people dont know who Kozlowski is, I'm getting old. Of course, when I graduated the accounting majors were bragging about getting hired at Arthur Andersen.
Yup,I knew the name rang a bell saw him on American Greed ,great show, but the guy deserves more time in the pen.
Dude did 8 years in jail and is a wimpy, white collar criminal. Why would we waste more money on him in jail. And 8+ years lost is penalty enough.
And no one on this site is going to jail for smoking weed. Drug laws are essentially backdoor racism and meant to control/disenfranchise the poor and uneducated.
If that is truly their (unwritten) purpose, then drug laws are easily the most effective bit of government legislation in our nation's history.
I mean how many college educated people who use drugs do you ever see going to jail? They get rehab or a slap on the wrist.
2 types of people go to jail for drugs
1) People who sell drugs
2) Poor people who use drugs
In fairness, the sellers probably deserve it and poor people should be cracking books at the library or raising their kids instead of getting high. Either way neither #1 or #2 apply to me hence my indifference to drug laws and legalizing drugs.
I'd much rather see permits for drug use sold in exchange for long term birth control implants, but I suppose sticking people in the rape-a-torium is more "humane".
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