samkorn's blog

Re: "'I AM A DEAD MAN': LACROIX"; Montreal Gazette (B-1), Sept.23, 2009



Don't believe for an instant that convicted financier, Vincent Lacroix is genuinely sorry for having swindled 9,200 investors of $115 Million while head of Quebec-based Norbourg Inc. If anything, Lacroix is feeling sorry only for himself for having been caught.

His open letter of apology to his victims on Tuesday, Sept.22, as well as his surprise GUILTY plea to about 200 related criminal charges on Monday, Sept.21, are good legal defense tactics designed to get him the minimum possible jail time at his sentencing hearing on Friday, Sept.25,2009.

More specifically, this way Lacroix gets to be sentenced BEFORE the enactment of the new law to eliminate mandatory release for prisoners after serving only a sixth of their sentence. Even if given the maximum 14-year sentence for his crime, and credit for the 20 months already spent behind bars, Vincent Lacroix will be out of jail and a free man to live off the proceeds of his crime after ONLY 8 more months in prison!

Only 8 more months in prison? If my math serves me correctly, that works out to approximately 39 minutes in jail for each one of the 9,200 investors that Vincent Lacroix robbed of their life savings. Sounds more like an after-school detention than a prison term to me. Where is the justice?

After victim impact statements are heard, the presiding judge should, irregardless of any pre-arranged plea-bargain deal, throw the proverbial book at Mr. Lacroix and toss away the key. Vincent Lacroix should be sentenced to MULTIPLE and CONSECUTIVE jail terms, and be ordered to make RESTITUTION to his victims.

It is of utmost importance to show once and for all that this kind of white-collar crime, involving a multitude of victims, will NO LONGER be tolerated and go unpunished in our society.