Rigas Family Finally Goes To Jail

All I can say is FINALLY. They should have been appealing their case while serving jail. They are long overdue.

What's wrong with watching them squirm for a while first? I'm sure that civil action by their creditors have made their life with liberty less than fun. Keeping them on the outside, where they have to come up with their own food, clothing and shelter makes for more opportunities to catch them dipping into any "rainy day" funds that they might have hidden, so that when they do emerge from jail, they'll have absolutely nothing to start over with.

Not likely John Rigas will emerge from jail to start over. He is 82 yrs old. And unless someone pardons him, he will die in prison. And there are a lot of ex-Adelphia employees that won't be sad to see that happen.

From »news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2007 ··· YsUE1vAI :

"The sentencing judge, citing the elder Rigas' poor health, had previously said his term might be cut short if he serves at least two years."

This is common practice with elderly, non-violent offenders. Depending on the true state of John Rigas' health, he might have a few years left in him after serving only two years. Not a bad deal for him, considering that "good time" doesn't exist in the federal prison system.

OTOH, getting out of some "Club Fed" to spend his remaining years in some nursing home could quite possibly be a harsher punishment in the end. Trust me, even the nice ones are pretty grim places. And #1 son will be denied the privilege of visiting his dad near his end, or attending his funeral. I'd call that just deserts.

IMHO there are still plenty more Adelphia employees who should go with them.

Kinda hard to come to terms with this, since there are only about 50 of em left divvying up the last of Adelphia's assets.

There ARE no more Adelphia employees. And the loss of some 16,000 jobs is nothing to take pleasure in.

In my opinion, there are 2 EX employees who should ALSO be jailed, sadly, they ran off with 65 million in cool cash for doing nothing more than hosting an auction.

It is if you ever had to talk to one. I'd prefer the jobs go to India compared to the horrendous Adelphia.

yes, the poor hapless people of India are far easier to demean and treat like garbage.

I would prefer we outsource all our lawyers to India.
Most of them are just self serving blowhards who contribute absolutely nothing to society anyways.

"IMHO there are still plenty more Adelphia employees who should go with them."

Really, why then have you not reported them to the authorities?

Thats what a fine upstanding citizen should do

i feel sorry though, for all those innocent workers and customers that got screwed while he was scamming.

Zito Media looks like a heck of a cable company. Possibly because they are so small? I can not get over there digital phone prices, $20 if you are an internet customer. You think you would see any of the big cable players offer a realistic price like that?

Zito Media looks like the name of a crime boss.
"Zeetoh MehDEEah"

that they're still in the country. I would have been long gone in three years

me too lol. i would be in cuba or somehing.

Makes you wonder what other communication companies are engaging in this nonsense.

What company can really get away with stuff like that anymore? It's because of scumbags like them, Ken Lay, Bernie Edwards, ect... that have put public companies under such a powerful microscope, doing anything like that today would be suicide for the CEO.

I'm sure that the same thing was said after the S&L scandals of the '80s. And yet it continues to happen.

As long as there's no regulation of big business, and people continue to have incredibly short memories about these things, corporate pillaging will continue to be the norm.

quote:

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Former CEO John Rigas (sentenced to 20 years in prison) and former CFO Timothy Rigas (sentenced to 15 years in prison) hid $2.3 billion in Adelphia debt from stockholders and spent millions of the company's money on personal projects.

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Okay, that's all well and good, but how are rapists and child molesters back on our streets in half that time? Surely we weigh money less than our children and sisters?

Shareholders don't give a shit about rape unless it happened to either themselves or someone personally known to them.

You're joking, right?

You can blame the war on drugs for that problem with its ridiculous mandatory sentences.

And remember, these guys will probably get out in half the time as well - good behavior. These guys didn't shoot anyone, so you can bet they will get out before their sentence expires.

John is 82, so it's doubtful he's even in "jail" very long before he's released for health reasons. I'll bet the son doesn't do any more than 7 years....

The correct word is "prison". Jails are for misdemeanor convicts, who by law can serve no more than one year. Prisons are for felons, who typically serve much longer terms. And since every federal crime is a felony...

You're right about John Rigas, who is slated to serve only two years due to poor health. But his sons don't get that kind of break. They must serve out their entire sentence. The federal system doesn't grant early release for good behavior. Once the sentence is handed down, only a successful appeal can change the time served.

Not all Federal crimes are felonies. Also, Federal prisons do not give shorter terms for parole.

This is true. One example would be that failing to pay child support on a child residing in another state is a Federal Misdemeanor.
»www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/r ··· very.htm

Well, I stand corrected. Strange but true.

Kind of sad too, since these new federal misdemeanor crimes seem to be centered around domestic matters. Before 9-11, it was darn-near impossible for a lone felony crime victim to get the FBI to investigate. Making a federal case about child support (literally) only serves to tie the hands of local authorities. And since Patriot I, the FBI has been too busy practicing neo-McCarthyism to take calls from mere private citizens.

Politicians who propose new laws when there are already laws on the books covering the very same issues should be shot. Every voter who ignorantly supported the unnecessary new laws should be dragged behind a galloping horse over concrete pavement for ten miles.

I dunno... that sounds awfully hard on the horses hooves, having to run over 10 miles of concrete like that....

Federal prison terms require 85% of their time served. The old guy might get out because a judge allows but the kid will spend nearly all of his 15 years in jail.

quote:

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Surely we weigh money less than our children and sisters?

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What do you have against brothers? You man hating jerk.

Well, IMHO the Rigas' raped their subscribers, so let's hope that they don't serve 'half that time'.

Some people SELL their children and sisters for money!

And in some cultures they kill their wives for simple disobedience.

Usually under thier circumstances they will serve 30% (appox 1/3) of the total sentence

When do THEY go to jail?

The "others" I am referring too are, the public. Or, more specifically, the public who has owned shares in this or any other public company for that matter.

While I don't exonerate the Rigas's from what they did by any means, a lot of these types of issues have their root cause in the way that Wall Street works. And in the demands that "investors" put on these public companies.

"Investing" today, is hardly anything close to being that.
It's more a casino, get rich quick mentality that DEMANDS that public companies and those who run them produce outstanding results superior to the last quarters ones...or those executives will face the WRATH of Wall Street and it's "shareholders".

Ever listen in to a conference call of a company that didn't "meet earnings" expectations?
Ever read the public message boards of those companies after such an event?
The closest thing to compare it to is a PUBLIC LYNCHING.

This is not "investing". Allowing a company, it's executives and employees to perform and build a company over time..

It's a "you have 3 months to do what we want you to do..or DIE" mentality.

And so, I ask you..is it any wonder that some executives just might feel the need to cook the books somewhat?

Is it right? No.

But shareholders need to accept their share of this.

And perhaps do a little jail time themselves when things go bad.

I hope old man Rigas dies in jail. I am a former Adelphia employee who lost my job and all my stock options when the company went into bankruptcy protection.

I hope their prison experience is not Club Fed. I hope they do hard time and lots of it.

I'm one of those former subscribers they were stealing from.

I don't care if they only serve half their sentence. That's the way the Justice/Penal system is set up.

I want my goddam money back, too. But that ain't gonna happen.
Knowing they're behind bars where they belong will have to suffice. Goddam thieves.

You kept paying your bill after they stopped providing service?

(I didn't think so)

I still owe them a little bit of money. Is that what you're trying to say?
I'll pay them one day, though I'd prefer they garner it from the fortune that the Rigas family stole-- and they can still give me back the difference.

is the county seat of Potter County, well known for the abundance of deer and other wildlife. When I lived in Potter County the population was 17,000 for the county and 1,700 for Coudersport. I moved out in 1990.

After Rigas went national and made Coudy his HQ, the population of the town and surroundings grew. Big, new, expensive homes were being built and things were grand. Soon after, the Rigas' got caught but the townsfolk stood behind John and the family. They remembered when John was a ticket-taker in a theater in a nearby town in the early 1940's. They remembered when John couldn't get the Erie,Pa and Buffalo,NY TV stations and decided to build his cable company. They recalled all of the good things he did for the town and the county but they couldn't believe that John would steal. But the jury did!

I haven't been up to Potter County in a few years but I was wondering what the locals think now. Last time I was there I recall seeing empty mobile home parks that the Rigas' employees had been living in. Also there were quite a few unfinished, new, large houses in the valley near Coudy that Rigas' people were building for management. Wonder what happened to it all.

A while back I replied to a post in the Adelphia forum saying that Rigas and his family should go to jail and I was attacked by a few county residents who still stood by him. Where are they now?

It looks like from their website they don't even build their own. They have a link on the bottom for Steve's Free webpage templates wonder if they noticed they left it? LOL