Mr. Cox, 66, worked in the late 1980s and early 1990s for Maine National Bank, a subsidiary of the Bank of New England, which went under. His job was to call in small-business loans. The borrowers had often pledged their houses as collateral, which meant foreclosure.

"It was extraordinarily unpleasant, but it paid well," he said. "I had a family to support."

The work exacted its cost: his marriage ended and a serious depression began. He gave up law and found solace in building houses. By April 2008, he said, he was sufficiently recovered and started volunteering at Pine Tree Legal.

Corporations are given stature, allowed to be a body do to speak, for some public good. People become corporations, and get certain benefits and protections and responsibilities by promising X to the community.

As it was pointed out a few days ago, fraud pierces the corporate veil. The people become people again.

If such things as 3 Strikes Laws had a purpose, it would certainly be so for corporations, and the people who let the policies slip to such an onerous degree as to let things like this happen get the same treatment as any other criminal who commit crimes.  The company disappears for a while, or forever. The people who invested in it take a loss for having backed someone who would do anything to make them money on their stationary money.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland