A Merrill Lynch Analyst, A Postal Worker, Business Week Employees and An Exotic Dancer – That Equals Nearly Five Years In Prison!

Eugene Plotkin, age 28, was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison for insider trading. But this was no ordinary insider trading scandal – rather, it was a bizarre series of events that caused one (who’s old enough) to remember the days of Ivan Boesky.

Here’s the skinny:

• In the first insider trading scheme, Plotkin and a former co-worker, David Pajcin, obtained tips from a former Merrill analyst Stanislav Shipigelman about up-coming mergers, including the Adidas-Saloman acquisition of Reebok International. Profits from the illegal tips – roughly $6.2 million.
• Scheme two – Plotkin and Pajcin hire to folks who worked at a Business Week printing plant to provide information (illegally) on upcoming prepublication issues of the magazine.
• Lastly, Plotkin and Pajcin traded on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb based on information provided from a postal worker who was serving on a grand jury in the investigation of BMS.

Pajcin traded in several accounts including those of his girlfriend, an exotic dancer.

Every choice has a consequence!

I keep hearing the words to the song … money for nothing and the chicks for free. Dire Straits I think. Well, it seems like these boys are in dire straits with prison terms awaiting them.

Having been there, I know what they’ll be facing.  YouTube  You’re known as a number. You’re a nobody and most of the inmates have no patience for a Harvard educated white guy. You’re counted six times per day and no special privileges. You work five days per week. My first assignment was collecting garbage on a military base. Collecting other people’s trash is nasty and it seemed it took days to remove the stench.

Almost five years … that’s nearly 20% of Plotkin’s life thus far. And what happens when he emerges? He’ll likely emerge a changed man. Technology will pass him by (although he’s bright enough to catch up quickly). Perhaps he’ll emerge bitter and wear the title convicted felon for the rest of his life. Or, perhaps, he’ll emerge with a motivation and spirit of service figuring out while there how to help others upon his release.

I repeat – Every choice has a consequence. The cool thing is – we control the consequences by our choices. Bad choices yield negative consequences – something Plotkin will experience soon. On the other hand, good choices yield positive results – something I have experienced – even as a convicted felon.

Today, I am the founder of the Choices Foundation, a non-profit foundation whose purpose is to education young people about the effect of choices and consequences. Likewise, I am a motivational speaker (http://www.chuckgallagher.com) – speaking nationally to business organizations and associations about business ethics and sales. For information about speaking to your organization please visit my web site and request a promotional video.

Free…Free Set Him Free! 27 Years In Prison For A Crime He Did Not Commit. Comments by Chuck Gallagher Ethics Speaker

Charles Chatman experienced something yesterday that he had never experienced before – using a cell phone. That simple act that we all take for granted was new to Chatman as just a few days ago he was released from a Texas prison – innocent – of the crime he was convicted of.

A portion of the story is reprinted here from the New York Times:

Charles Chatman walked free on Thursday, the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County to be exonerated by DNA testing since 2001.

The innocence claims of seven other Dallas-area prisoners are pending, thanks in large part to a crime laboratory that, unlike others in Texas, has preserved evidence going back as long as three decades.

“I’m bitter toward what happened,” Mr. Chatman, 46, said by telephone after Judge John Creuzot of State District Court, who had championed a review of his case, ordered him released in a jubilant Dallas courtroom.

“He’s my fourth one,” said Judge Creuzot, who had invited Mr. Chatman to his courtroom on Wednesday to hear the news that a DNA sample recently taken from him did not match the profile from the rape victim’s vaginal swab of 1981.

The judge said that he had bought Mr. Chatman a T-bone steak for lunch but that he had to instruct him how to use a knife to cut the meat — he was only allowed spoons in prison — and later showed him his first cellular phone and helped him call his family.

Judge Creuzot has taken a personal interest in justice. In fact, I would call him an ethics champion for justice. It seems that far too often in the judicial system folks are focused on the conviction and punishment rather than on true justice. Fairly, however, technology has made this possible as DNA evidence – that would have proven Mr. Chatman’s innocence – was not available then. Hence, the jury had only the evidence at their disposal in order to convict.

Mr. Chatman said he harbored no feelings of animosity toward the neighbor who had misidentified him as her rapist, earning him a 99-year sentence. But he said he felt he was victimized because he was black.

“I want to let the world know what happened,” he said, “I won’t shy away from that.”

Mr. Chatman, who had been locked up since age 20, said he had lost three chances for release by insisting to the Parole Board, “I never committed the crime.”

He said he wanted to work alongside his lawyers, Jeff Blackburn, Natalie Roetzel and Michelle Moore, to help others he had met in prison prove their innocence. The lawyers work with the Innocence Project of Texas, a consortium of university law clinics that has been using DNA evidence to exonerate people who were wrongly convicted.

The lawyers and District Attorney Craig Watkins of Dallas County credited Judge Creuzot for taking a personal role in the case. But they also said the unusual string of exonerations was made possible by the many specimens saved by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences, the laboratory under contract to Dallas County, and the latest DNA testing by Orchid Cellmark, a leading genetic research organization.

Sorry…but remember Craig Watkins – he made news of his own when he failed to pay his bar dues. Oh well, the good clearly outweighs a minor mistake. Mr. Watkins made history in 2006 as the first African-American elected a district attorney in Texas (Dallas, TX).

According to their web site, the “Innocence Project of Texas is a consortium of independent projects from Texas Tech University, Texas Wesleyan, University of St. Thomas, University of Texas-Arlington, and the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. These projects, through student volunteers, devote their time to investigating inmates’ claims of actual innocence and working toward freedom for the wrongfully-convicted who would otherwise become lost in the criminal justice system.” See their site for more details: http://www.innocenceprojectoftexas.org/

Mr. Blackburn, chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas, said Texas needed an Innocence Commission to officially investigate claims of wrongful conviction. A bill to create a commission died in the Texas Legislature last year.

Exonerations have been making news elsewhere in the country. Since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group specializing in capital punishment issues, 126 prisoners in 26 states have been released from death row based on evidence of their innocence. Eight of the cases were in Texas, but Florida led with 22, followed by Illinois with 18, the center said.

As a business ethics speaker, I freely share my experience in prison for the choice I made. While I am not proud of that fact of my life, I do understand that people can use bad experiences to create positive good. Frankly, I can’t imagine what Mr. Chatman will be facing knowing that better than half of his life has been behind bars. I faced an adjustment for the short time I was incarcerated and dealing with the changes that have taken place over 27 years will – in and of themselves – be a feat.

My best to Mr. Chatman. My his life moving forward be blessed and may he find peace in knowing that others saw that the flame of justice was fired and still burns when justice is served for all.

Business ethics speaker, Chuck Gallagher (http://www.chuckgallagher.com) signing off…

Looks Like Clemens Throws A Fast Ball – Roger Clemens Trainer Hit With A Lawsuit!

Not liking – not one little bit – the allegation by his former trainer that Roger Clemens injected steroids – Clemens had taken the mound and thrown a hard fast one at Brian McNamee. Ouch!

Clemens filed suit Sunday night in Harris County District Court (Houston Texas area), claiming the statements McNamee had made to George Mitchell (the baseball drug investigator) were “untrue and defamatory.” The suit goes on to claim that “Clemens good reputation has been severely injured” and that “McNamee’s false allegations have also caused Clemens to suffer mental anguish, shame, public humiliation and embarrassment.”

According to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog:

The suit states that when McNamee was first was interviewed by federal law enforcement last June, he denied Clemens had used steroids or human growth hormone. The suit quotes McNamee as saying he was pressured by federal agents to implicate Clemens, though it doesn’t say where the quote came from.

“After this exchange, and for the first time in his life, McNamee stated that he had injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001,” the suit says. “Following his recantation, McNamee has relayed that he magically went from a ‘target’ in a federal criminal drug investigation to a mere ‘witness,’ so long as he continued to ‘toe the line.’ ”

The suit says that when McNamee initially refused a request from federal authorities that he speak to Mitchell, he was threatened with prosecution. Clemens says McNamee decided only then to cooperate with Mitchell and the suit said McNamee said the interview “was conducted like a Cold War-era interrogation in which a federal agent merely read to the Mitchell investigators McNamee’s previously obtained statement and then asked McNamee to confirm what he previously stated.”

As I say often in my keynote speeches – Every choice has a consequence.

This battle between Clemens and McNamee has some interesting potential outcomes. First, if Clemens is correct – he never used steroids – then McNamee will suffer a financial outcome that he likely didn’t expect as Clemens would be the victor in the lawsuit. Further, McNamee’s testimony is being called into question and if proven inaccurate by Clemens – likely there will be a host of others to challenge as well.

On the Clemens side – by issuing the lawsuit, Clemens opens himself up to more intense review knowing that there are those folks who believe that no one can be “that good.”

It is said that the truth will set you free. If Roger is not telling the truth about steroid use, then he’s taking a big gamble with the lawsuit. Likewise, if McNamee’s fabricated a story about Clemens – then he’s in big trouble on a multitude of fronts.

Question: What do you think about the lawsuit filed by Roger Clemens?

As a motivational speaker – speaking on choices and consequences I’d love to hear your thoughts!