HAAS: Pleads Guilty...

It's in now... A little time and a whole lot of money....

Haas pleads guilty

Wonder what the Feds are going to do about the other 10 charges?...

Yeah right....that's 2 years for only one charge.

I wonder then what he has been doing since 1997???

"Haas has not been involved in the daily operations of the business for nearly a decade, according to Zierhut, who said General Manager Bob Murray and senior managers oversee operations."

I wonder what the intent or purpose of that comment anyway. He's still the owner, president, CEO... whatever you want to call it. Just because he supposedly has been "uninvolved" doesn't excuse liability or responsibility. He still endorses all of the docs and papers....

Be like me telling the IRS... "My wife does the taxes..." Hmmm... wonder if I could pull that off?? J/J..

And not to mention, he's only pleading to one charge out of 11.... What are the Feds doing with the other 10?

I wonder what the intent or purpose of that comment anyway. He's still the owner, president, CEO... whatever you want to call it. Just because he supposedly has been "uninvolved" doesn't excuse liability or responsibility. He still endorses all of the docs and papers....

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I think that statement was made to keep "the consumers confidence" in the company. it's like the company is trying to distance itself from haas, basically saying we don't need him to keep operating effectively.

Wonder what the Feds are going to do about the other 10 charges?...

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They'll either be dropped or consolidated at sentencing. You generally can't be tried separately for each of multiple charges relating to the same crime. Most anytime you do something like Haas did, you'll violate a whole list of laws. Although you'd be charged separately for each one, they sorta use the lesser ones to bolster their case for the big one to minimize your chances of slithering out free and clear.

The others who were charged and who have plead guilty won't be sentenced until next year because, although every one of them likely already has a plea agreement in place, the prosecutor needed to hold the leverage of a sentence not yet passed over their heads should Haas have decided to go to trial, thus requiring their testimony. If you went ahead and sentenced each of them to 6 to 12 months before Gene entered a plea, there's always that possibility that they might all forget Gene's involvement for some sort of "incentive". Once they were all sentenced, they could take the stand and swear they conspired on their own to commit the crime without Haas's knowledge. Unless the prosecutor could then prove they'd been bribed (a difficult thing to prove), the case against Gene would've fallen apart, and there would have been no recourse against any of the co-conspirators even though the prosecutor might know they're now lying. Once they're sentenced, all his leverage disappears.

Eesh...he going to have to pay $70mil, when originally he wanted to recoup $8.9mil. Crime didn't pay in this instance!

I wonder if his dog is in his will for $12 mil? His scheming rivals that of the "Queen of Mean."