Need help responding with own perspectives on whether the CEOs and other corporate officers involved were justly held criminally responsible or not.

Hello Class,

This subject is interesting to me, I just wonder how these companies with so many checks and balances figure that nobody will notice these huge discrepancies.

The company I chose to look at is HealthSouth, in 2003 they were charged with exaggerating their books to the tune of $1.4 billion dollars. This came as a huge surprise while I was a young athlete this was a huge name in the sporting world sponsoring many sports and on the sidelines of every major sporting event in the south through the late 90's they were the face at all USA Wrestling events and it was definitely a huge surprise when they were charged seeing their CEO charged and the company shut down nearly overnight.

The CEO was originally charged with fraud but ultimately walked with only a bribery charge. I feel like anyone who is running a company who is defrauding the public, or anyone for that matter should definitely be held accountable and charged with hefty penalties for these actions. The problem is many of these wealthy criminals who are doing these white-collar criminal activities believe they are untouchable and don't feel like they are doing anything wrong. I do not feel like the punishment was just for the crime.

Unfortunately, it's been proven that companies have trouble self-regulating and have had a track record of not making the right ethical decisions, I feel that it is important the government has some reach and power in enforcing the law and keeping these companies accountable to the public.