It wasn’t all that long ago when every
corporate failure was followed, sure as the sun rises over Flatbush, by a
lawsuit against the accountants.

Clinton securities “reform” and a hard-hearted Supreme Court put a stop to that, and
not such a bad thing, either: not every bad guess should lead to the penalty
box.

But some should. And nostalgia buffs will feel a ripple of
remembrance when they read about John Haukland, 57, (former?) KPMG partner
“sentenced to 30 days … for negligent accounting in one of this country’s worst
bankruptcies…” (link) “This country” is "Norway” where Haukland was auditor of something called Finance
Credit, which went bankrupt to the tune of $242 million in 2003.

I know what you are thinking: insert “fraud
in  Norway ?” joke here. Evidently
the Norwegians are not amused. Commentators discussed the case, among others, in a Norwegian “Country
report” produced by Transparency International, the ratings agency that
regularly ranks Norway as one of the least corrupt countries in the world (link). The report said: 

Cases like
these have been characterized in the Norwegian media as symptoms of a business
community that has lost its virtue This
is a new phenomenon in Norway and the public debate has been as lively as it has been mixed.
Most have welcomed the new focus on
corruption, the media revelations and the enhanced debate about ethics and
corporate responsibility. But shallow and rosy declarations about zero
tolerance, and a lack of public recognition of corruption in everyday practice
do not make for a convincing anti-corruption strategy or promote genuine
corporate progress. While companies recognise the need to strengthen protective
measures and internal controls, they have yet to acquire the knowledge and
tools to implement effective anti-corruption policies.

Haukland has the opportunity to appeal. But
he has apparently already given up something more pricey than 30 days’ freedom:
his license to practice his profession.

There is a wonderful tag end to the story.  We are told that

The court
said a mitigating circumstance in sentencing Haukland was that ”[the
principals of the company] both verbally and in other ways had skills that few
other criminals possess.”

 Man, I would love to know how that one
sounds in Norwegian. There’s an old saw
that criminals are stupid. Wrong: stupid
criminals are stupid. The real danger to
society are the guys that learn to work in the white space around the letter of
the law while getting other poor sods to pick up their doggy doo. I used to dine out with a psychiatrist. I would tell him some of my bankruptcy war
stories (he was more reticent). “I think you know more psychopaths than I do,”
my friend said, “but you know the successes. I only see the failures.”

Oh, and PS : KPMG was acquitted.