John Rigas Gets USAToday Back RubA week before he heads to prison... ( old news - 03:38PM Monday Aug 06 2007) tags: legal · business · cableFormer Adelphia boss John Rigas should be heading to jail on Sunday for hiding $2.3 billion in Adelphia debt from stockholders and spending millions of the company's money on personal projects. In a very touching USAToday fluff piece apparently aimed at coddling his legacy, the former cable boss likens himself to Gary Cooper in High Noon, claims he was a victim of a witch hunt and insists he did nothing wrong. The former cable mogul, whose net worth topped $2.5 billion in 2002, could have cut a deal with the government and perhaps received a lighter sentence. But Rigas says he would not plead guilty to crimes he believes he did not commit. "I believe there is a time when you can't compromise your values," says the World War II vet. "My legacy is to my grandchildren, and you have to stand up — as difficult as it is — for something. And that is not something to be compromised or amended." Bottom line: Rigas says the government's case wasn't really about fraud, "because, you know, there was no fraud." Rather, he says, "It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this had happened a year before, there wouldn't have been any headlines." insists Mr. Cooper Mr. Rigas.
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 satellite68
join:2007-04-11
Louisville, KY
| nice spin White collar criminal gets all bleary eyed. Whatever.
If he got caught with a $5 crack rock and a 9mm in Detroit, he'd be doing hard time lickety split. But because he merely pilfered billions of other people's dollars, he gets the Grandpa-What?-me-no-worry wristslap. | |
|  | actor90
Never a dull moment
Premium
join:2003-07-21
L.E.H.T., NJ
 ·Comcast
| Re: nice spin said by satellite68  :White collar criminal gets all bleary eyed. Whatever. If he got caught with a $5 crack rock and a 9mm in Detroit, he'd be doing hard time lickety split. But because he merely pilfered billions of other people's dollars, he gets the Grandpa-What?-me-no-worry wristslap. He comes across as a everyones Gramps, but the reality is that Methuselah's grand child over there raped his employees and investors financially.
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My Blog on blogspot.com | |
| wstwrdho
join:2007-03-15
Riverton, UT | If it quacks and lives in the water..... It aint a chicken. A ducks a ducks you crook.
LIEUTENANT!!!! Ready the firing squad!!!! | |
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AmeritecTech
Change we can believe in, 1922
Premium
join:2002-09-06
Houston, TX
| Hit Lady? Definitely seems fishy. The reporter who wrote this story is the same who broke the story about other phone companies sharing data with the federal government, something they denied.
»www.newsbusters.org/node/5435
I'm curious if she has any ties to Adelphia.
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"Independent thinkers tend to ALWAYS have someone Not agreeing with them. It's The non-thinkers that ALWAYS come in legions."
-John Callari | |
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs: | Re: Hit Lady? so anti-telco pro cable? what's your angle. | |
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AmeritecTech
Change we can believe in, 1922
Premium
join:2002-09-06
Houston, TX
| Re: Hit Lady? said by morbo :so anti-telco pro cable? what's your angle. Maybe, who knows. As I recall, the cable companies came out and sanctimoniously said that they would NEVER do such a horrible thing as that.
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"Independent thinkers tend to ALWAYS have someone Not agreeing with them. It's The non-thinkers that ALWAYS come in legions."
-John Callari | |
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major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:
| said by AmeritecTech :I'm curious if she has any ties to Adelphia. I'm sure Cauley is just another wannabe looking to whore herself out to wealthy, powerful benefactors for political favors rendered after the noise dies down. Silly girl, she should learn the same lessons Katie Harris did: You don't bob & suck before the john puts the money/favor on the table first.
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The Toll
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ
 ·Sprint Broadband D..
| She broke the story of illegal wire tapping, she wrote this story and you suspect "Liberal Media Bias", especially when the charge comes from a Brent Bozell site, no paragon of objectivity that? The big charge: she contributed to Dick Gephardt, noted former Viet Cong guerrilla.
Oh man. Death, where is thy sting? Take this chalice from my lips.
/me smacks head into keyboard.
What do you suggest then? No free press? No reporting on government or corporate wrongdoing? Should we all just gobble a fistful of Seroquel and drool our ignorant way through life while our "betters" do what they wilt? | |
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AmeritecTech
Change we can believe in, 1922
Premium
join:2002-09-06
Houston, TX
| Re: Hit Lady? Jesus, I didn't say anything at all about liberal media bias. I was only using that link to show she was the one that broke that story, not any other nonsense claimed by the link. I'm talking about a pro Adelphia anti telco bias. Clearly something is afoot, because the Rigas family has few redeeming qualities.
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"Independent thinkers tend to ALWAYS have someone Not agreeing with them. It's The non-thinkers that ALWAYS come in legions."
-John Callari | |
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ | Re: Hit Lady? Well, the article in your link clearly did. Sorry if I misunderstood your intent. | |
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TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ | Re: Hit Lady? You forgot "Drool". It communicates so much about the one doing the drooling, apparently exactly what our betters want to see. | |
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major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:
| Boo hoo, for Johnny He was caught red handed with his paws in the cookie jar and now we're supposed to feel bad for him because he looks like everyone's favorite grandpa. Whatta crock. White collar criminals should be put into the general population of maximum security prisons where they can room with 6'5", 300 lb. criminals named Bubba. Barring that, I would personally like to see Rigas tarred & feathered followed by being drawn and quartering. Let's bring back punishment from the goold old days for these kind of criminals. I'm more afraid of what criminals with a pen and a briefcase can do than I am of crack dealers with guns.
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The Toll
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N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
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join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Boo hoo, for Johnny said by major marco :He was caught red handed with his paws in the cookie jar and now we're supposed to feel bad for him because he looks like everyone's favorite grandpa. I know plenty of crooked old bastards that look like Mr. Rogers. They're evil as the day is long, and to quote my grandmother, meaner than cat shit.
Can't wait until this guy's in a cell and the lights go out.
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Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY | Re: Boo hoo, for Johnny Follow the China model screw up and bloom! head shot and a bill for the cartridge to the survivors. 
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Remember safe sex does not prevent crabs. | |
| | rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT
| Although what he did was atrocious he doesn't deserve to be housed with violent criminals because he isn't a violent criminal. One of the major problems I have with the prison system in this country is prisoners are housed mainly by the length of their term, not based on the severity or violence involved. Non-violent criminals should never be housed with those that commit violent acts as you are most likely to encourage the individual to be a violent criminal once they get out of prison. The maximum security prisons in this country are havens of gang violence with attempted murders and murders almost every single day simply based on gang affiliation.
Personally I think lifers and violent criminals should be housed in super-max jails and the non-violent offenders should be housed in more open style community prisons.
I'm not saying he doesn't deserve a lengthy term, but I am saying there is no reason to spend all the extra money to house him in a max security prison. Not only that but your idea that somehow he would be abused in prison is wrong on two major levels. Prison rape is wrong. Period. It should never be condoned and it should never be approved of, not in any circumstance. Second, grandpa is old and rich, people will be sucking up to him for financial favors and he could certainly purchase protection if he needed to. In fact he could probably rapidly build the connections he would need to get people killed on the outside if he desired.
He's likely to spend the rest of his life in prison and never see his grandchildren, wife or family again in any meaningful way. That is more punishment than you could inflict on him than senseless violence he might experience in a max security prison. He deserves to spend the rest of his life in a cheap (for the tax payers) facility, which means a minimum security prison. A non-violent prison is also good in the sense that he won't be afflicted with violence that could double or triple his medical costs which the tax payers will be forced to pay. Keep him healthy, deprive him of some important items in his life (freedom of movement and interaction) and you hurt him more than probably anything else. | |
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major marco
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA
clubs:
| Re: Boo hoo, for Johnny said by rahvin112 :He's likely to spend the rest of his life in prison and never see his grandchildren, wife or family again in any meaningful way. Who are you trying to kid? John Rigas is 82 yrs old and got a sentence of a mere 15 yrs for bilking billions of dollars out of investors. He's lucky if he'll see a year of that time on the inside because I am very sure his legal counsel will come up with creative ways so their client never has to see the inside of a prison.
Secondly, I don't feel bad for criminals who suddenly find God, their consciences and their families after they've been sentenced. If he doesn't get to see his family then too bad so sad. Cry me a river. He should have thought of that before he became a criminal. Let's give John Rigas the same advice he would no doubt have for the average person who was arrested/sentenced for wrongdoing: Don't commit the crime if you cannot do the time.
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The Toll
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AtlGuy
join:2000-10-17
Marietta, GA
| Maybe I missed it in the article, but did it say he was going to a maximum security prison? I didn't really read the article but scanned it and saw at the end the mention of one going to one prison, and one to another prison. My thought was that they would go to minimum security prisons.
I know a guy that got convicted for marijuana trafficing and remember him telling me the prison he went to didn't even have a fence around it (federal prison). He said he met politicians, judges, money launderers, etc. there, so I would think the Rigas clan would be living in a prison like that. | |
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dangerous1
@comcast.net
| hmm It always saddens me to see such animosity towards other people. Right or wrong. Billions of dollars or 20 dollars. Murderer or crack fiend. It all kind of perpetuates itself and creates these kinds of criminals in the first place.
The punishment should definitely fit the crime. I do think that prison is pointless as long as it burns up taxpayers dollars. I am sick and tired of these quasi-punishments. If you kill another person, you should be sent to the gallows. If you injure someone, you should be maimed. If you steal from others, you should be thrown into poverty and publicly tortured.
The difference between that, and some of the crap that is opined here is that THAT is the way it should be. Not my opinion or hatred speaks any of that. If the punishments could start fitting the crimes we could stop sitting back and giving our 2 cents about what is proper. More importantly, we could stop sitting back and hating other human beings. | |
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AnnaS8
join:2005-05-26
Annapolis, MD | Yeah... Are you kidding me? Do they really think that people will buy that? He must be bat shit crazy if he does. | |
| | | Ken Cornman
join:2006-01-02
Lancaster, NY
| Re: Gary Cooper in High Noon? lol Speaking as somebody who knows Mr. Rigas as he is a family friend, I would have to honestly say that he got a bum rap on this. This guy was not some cut throat business man. He was the type of guy that gave sincerely and generously to everyone around him, never asking for anything in return or even making a big deal about it, and that's going back to even before he was wealthy. I would not say the same about his well educated kids.
This guy was doing what the auditors, CPAs, and lawyers (and his kids) were telling him was alright to do. His fault was that he put way top much trust in their opinions and competence and he let them roam on a leash that was much longer than it should have been. But that is just the type of guy that he is. He loves people and is the type of person that sees good in everyone he meets. | |
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logcabinboy
join:2001-07-23
Whitmore, CA
clubs: | Pays to be rich What the hell has taken them so long? I suppose he was hoping he'd die first.
wiki
"Rigas was convicted of the charges in the summer of 2004 and on June 20, 2005 was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison" | |
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Jigsaw
Stardust We Are
Premium
join:2000-10-21
Cleveland, OH
·Cox HSI
| Re: Pays to be rich said by logcabinboy :What the hell has taken them so long? I suppose he was hoping he'd die first. wiki "Rigas was convicted of the charges in the summer of 2004 and on June 20, 2005 was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison" Maybe they could put em next to Ken Lay that way people would not have to walk to far to piss on them both!!!!!!
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jaa
Premium,MVM
join:2000-06-13 | They should hit him where it really hurts... ...in his wallet. Take away that "legacy to his grandchildren" like he stole from the investor's grandchildren.
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cabana
now in peppermint
Assistant
join:2000-07-07
New York, NY
Host:
AT&T Southeast
56k Lookout (Broad..
| Re: They should hit him where it really hurts... giggle ... does the photo mean he has been put out to pasture?   | |
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