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Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 10:44 AM
Subject: NWB-USW-Qwest / Denver Post - "Judge slams door on a dazed, shaken
Nacchio"
To all -
Was it the former New York Yankee player and longtime manager Yogi Berra who
said, "It's not over till it's over." If so, Joe Nacchio must have been a
Yankee fan.
Phyllis Kielblock
Tel - 952-937-2056
E-mail - Pkielblock@aol.com<mailto:Pkielblock@aol.com>
A special note from the Board of Directors of the NWB-USW-Qwest Retiree
Association:
"This message is a service to our members to provide information pertaining to
retirees, retiree benefits and other areas of interest. Viewpoints expressed
in these articles do not necessarily reflect the position of our Retiree
Association."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judge slams door on a dazed, shaken Nacchio
By Al Lewis, Columnist
Denver Post
Sunday, July 29, 2007
What did Joe Nacchio want to say?
As the curtain closed on his sentencing hearing on Friday, the former Qwest CEO
stood before U.S. District Court Judge Edward Nottingham, pleading to speak.
Too late, the judge ordered. He'd had his chance earlier in the hearing and
didn't take it. Court adjourned.
People in the gallery were already standing. Lawyers on both sides of the
courtroom were packing their briefcases. The sentence was harsh and final.
Yet there stood Nacchio, frustrated and perplexed, his hands outstretched,
begging for just one moment to be heard.
He was going away for six years without ever addressing the court during his
trial. Nacchio's state of mind, a key element of any insider-trading case, was
not something we learned from him.
"I promise it will be respectful," Nacchio cried. He only wanted to say one
thing. But the judge shooed him away like a teacher dismissing a hyperactive
schoolboy.
Case closed. It was all over. See ya, Joe.
Earlier in the day, Nacchio indicated that he wanted to address the court. But
when it came his turn, he stood at the lectern with his attorneys and declined.
Nacchio was too upset - or perhaps angry - at that moment, wiping his
bespectacled eyes with a white handkerchief.
I think his attorneys figured it was just as well. They have already laid the
groundwork for an exhaustive appeal.
In court filings, they claim Nacchio didn't get a fair trial, that there wasn't
sufficient evidence for a conviction, that jury instructions were improper,
that expert testimony and key evidence was unfairly excluded, and that the
government hobbled Nacchio's defense by deeming much of it classified. Nacchio
had claimed he expected to meet his projections through telecommunications
contracts with secret government agencies. But his attorneys did not get to
present this defense.
The hearing was barreling toward its inevitable conclusion, anyway. A $19
million fine. An order seeking forfeiture of more than $52 million related to
insider stock trades. Six years in prison. No appeal bond. A penitentiary in
Pennsylvania. Two years' supervised release.
The judge's orders must have swirled around Nacchio's head like stars. He was
taking punches like a boxer against the ropes. And when the beating was over,
he was left with the possibility that he may have only days of freedom left if
he does not get fast relief from the appeals court.
Whatever he might have said would not have changed the judge's mind anyway.
The judge conceded he was moved by Nacchio's attorneys' pleas for leniency, but
not enough to depart from sentencing guidelines.
Nacchio's mentally ill son, David, depends on his father, the court record
shows. But almost every convict has needy family members, the judge noted.
Nacchio should have thought of that before coming to Colorado and committing
fraud.
If his family was so needy, he should have never left New Jersey and taken the
Qwest job.
"The only reason I can see why he came here was greed," said Nottingham. "The
love of money." At least three times, the judge called Nacchio's
transgressions "crimes of overarching greed."
Perhaps Nacchio wanted to tell the judge that it was not greed. That it was
ambition - the desire to build a great company. The entrepreneurial thrill of
creating a new-generation telecommunications network. The adrenaline rush of
chasing deals on Wall Street.
Not that it mattered. The judge had suffered through every moment and motion
in the case and he had clearly decided to make an example of Nacchio.
If white-collar criminals ever wonder what might happen if they get caught,
they need only look to Nacchio. If working stiffs start to fear they are
victims of a double standard, they need only look to the Nacchio sentence for
comfort.
"If it is perceived there is one law for the rich and one law for everybody
else, the law will ultimately fall in disrespect," Nottingham explained.
Maybe Nacchio wanted to say that he meant no disrespect. That it was the
telecom market and the economy that let everybody down. That he didn't sell
all of his stock. Just some of it.
Or maybe Nacchio wanted to say he was sorry. Not guilty. But sorry. That it
hurt so many people. But it was too late.
I stood in the foyer as Nacchio left the courtroom, deeply wounded. I shook
his hand as he passed with his family, friends and entourage of lawyers. I
told him I felt sorry about the way it all went down.
"What were you going to say?" I asked. "What did you want to tell the judge?"
He was still shaken. But like a defeated action hero summoning the courage for
a comeback, he gave me three words: "It's not over."
Al Lewis' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Lewis at
denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis<http://denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis>,
303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com<mailto:alewis@denverpost.com>.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6489188
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