Two alpha dog, control-freak, (and incredibly effective) leaders, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former State House Speaker Tom Finneran, each committed a crime.
Finneran lied to investigators about redistricting. Stepped down to become a lobbyist.
Jobs cheated on stock options, backdating them to essentially hand his executives money that belongs to shareholders.
Al Gore, on the Apple board, quickly gave Jobs the all-clear. That might not be enough to save Jobs, and might tarnish Clean Al in the process.
Now Dimasi and Trav are “calling members of the [Mass Biotech] Council’s board to assure them that [Biotech Council President] Finneran’s new status as a felon would not pose the slightest impediment to his ability to lobby effectively.”
Translation: If you DO FIRE him, you will have big problems on Beacon Hill.
GWW: Personal question and no need to respond if you don’t want to. Why do you choose to post anonymously? Or is it not anonymous and I am just missing something?
oh it’s not that anonymous…like a number of BMGers, it’s “sort of anonymous”…easy to figure out if you follow the comments for a while. play along and you’ll crack the code.
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okay, fine, i confess: it’s me. mike dukakis.
could that be, i’m mike dukakis using an alter ego?
mike dukakis. see you on amtrak!
Tell us who you are
Steve Jobs’ “crime”, if you want to call it that, at least appears to be victimless.
…and I don’t see how I’ve been victimized in any way by this. If Jobs was forced out, then I’d feel victimized.
You may want to remove yourself from the class-action lawsuit.
First I’d heard of it. Doesn’t someone have an obligation to tell me that I’m a plaintiff in a class action, so I can opt out?
Or street name? If the latter, those things get lost all the time.
.. but I get annual reports and proxy statements from Apple all the time, so they know where I live.
Do you hold the actual certificate? name.
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Does your broker hold the certicates? street name. If so, they forward some of the stuff to you.
I’m conflicted. If Jobs broke SEC rules, he deprived shareholders. OTOH, my Apple shares would probably be worth far less (in fact, I think it quite likely that Apple would be out of business) had Jobs not taken the helm in 1997. People seem to forget how dark those days were. Jobs revitalized the product line and introduced the iPod. I’m finding it hard to muster the outrage when my stock is worth four times what I paid for it.
My bad. I should clarify: backdating is legal…if it’s disclosed to the SEC (and therefore to shareholders).*
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If you instead have documents from “board meetings” that never actually happened “approving” the backdating…..I think that’s what’s at issue.
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*Full disclosure: On legal matters, and most matters that don’t directly deal with pro sports, I have no idea what I am talking about.
I want him on WRKO – the first erudite talk show host since the passing of David Brudnoy!
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I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope,….
I’d love him to keep the job at Mass Biotech.
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Seriously, he’s a guy who gets stuff done. Period. No offense to the last person who held that seat, but she was not exactly mover and shaker. Radio show will only help him have more juice.
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With all the economic growth issues facing MA, Finneran could be a 10-year powerhouse in creating the conditions biotech corporate expansion here….and what’s good for them is generally good for all of us. It’s not like he’s representing strip mining coal industry.
Are there deposits in North Adams?
I’m not sure whether this qualifies as strip mining, and I expect Specialty Minerals is not represented by the Biotech Council (although they used to be owned by Pfizer, apparently).
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One good thing about quarries, when they are bought up by a new multinational, you don’t have to worry too much about the jobs going overseas!
Yes, that’s just what we need…a former politician, confessed felon hosting a public affairs talk show. Why not look up OJ Simpson for a show on relationships?
“He faces the loss of his state pension, the loss of his nearly half-million-dollar-a-year job as a lobbyist for the biotechnology industry, the loss of his license to practice law and, ironically, the loss of the privilege that was at the heart of the redistricting case — the right to vote.”
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I read this in the Glob. DO we restrict the right of felons to vote? I know other states do, but does Mass.? Or is this just the Glob out of touch? Or am I?
if you lose the right to vote in MA elections, do you lose the right to vote in BMG polls?
and only while they are incarcerated.
..Ellen What’s-her-name is once again wrong.
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Irony of ironies!
like if you commit a felony related to voter fraud — then you lose your right to vote indefinitely.
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Again, IIRC. I don’t know if Mistah Speakah’s felony counts due to it’s relationship to election laws in MA.
Here’s a newsletter article from the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition which, if accurate, should be the last word on the subject.
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Prisoners convicted of misdemeanors can vote. Non-convicted prisoners awaiting trial for any crime can vote. Felons can vote as soon as they are released from prison.
§ 1. Qualifications of Voters.
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p> Every citizen eighteen years of age or older, not being a person under guardianship or incarcerated in a correctional facility due to a felony conviction, and not being temporarily or permanently disqualified by law because of corrupt practices in respect to elections, who is a resident in the city or town where he claims the right to vote at the time he registers, and who has complied with the requirements of this chapter, may have his name entered on the list of voters in such city or town, and may vote therein in any such election, […continues]
This tells me two things:
1) There was no crime committed.
2) Steve Jobs was not the ringleader.
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Enderle is sort of the tech version of Bill Kristol. He can be reliably depended upon to be wrong.
Maybe one of the reasons that ethics violations are not taken seriously is because people find some kind of humor in them. A Speaker of our House of Representatives admitted to lying under oath. That’s disgusting. Now the current Speaker and Senate President are trying to manipulate the Biotech Council to prevent the natural consequence of Mr.Finnernan losing his job. That is outrageous. There was so much more outrage expressed here about the ConCon voting up or down on the Anti Marriage amendment than there is about the felon and these armtwiting legislators. There must be, or should be, something in our state constitution that says our legislators should not lie in the commission of their service and that sitting legislators should not be protecting a convicted felon who used to be a legislator. This is how Richard Nixon got to be considered a statesman rather than a liar who disgraced the office of the presidency. We have let our moral compass go haywire.
I don’t know where you heard that DiMasi & Travaglini have made calls on Finneran’s behalf but the two have denied they have – someone sent me this from State House News Services:
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……Senate President Robert Travaglini, who worked with and against Finneran during the two-plus years their leaderships overlapped, disputed a published report that he’d called members of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council to push them to keep on Finneran as president of the lobbying group.
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“I don’t know who’s making those comments,” Travaglini said.
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But, he said, “The whole situation is unfortunate, and it’s certainly something that I feel a certain degree of fondness for the former speaker and I wish him nothing but the best.”
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DiMasi, too, said he hadn’t actively lobbied for Finneran, under whom he served as a top lieutenant and, like Travaglini, a fellow member of the Boston delegation.
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“Tom Finneran was a very close personal friend and colleague of mine for 26 years and his 26 years of public service [were] exemplary,” DiMasi said. “And he conducted himself with great integrity and honesty and I believe the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
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The biotech community, DiMasi said in a telephone call responding to a News Service request for comment, “could not have a better spokesman than Tom Finneran.” Noting that he hadn’t been dialing council members, he said nonetheless, “If anybody asked me, that’s what I’d say.”
It was in Adrian Walker’s column in the Globe Monday, if you click on the link in the original post.
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I assume that paragraph is what led to the State House News Service query.
and Mr DiMasi, gimme a break!!: “… his 26 years of public service [were] exemplary,” DiMasi said. “And he conducted himself with great integrity and honesty.”
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hello??!! have you been following tf’s indictment and guilty plea??!! and how much taxpayer money did WE have to spend on that??!!
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these folks clearly think they are above basic decency and above the law. i couldn’t agree more w/the prior comment about lack of a moral compass being a central issue here. it’s disgusting.
Gimmie a break…A globe columnist wries something and it is to be wholly believed?
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Where is the proof? I am sure that Finneran has built strong relationships and friendships during his near thirty years in the House…and I am not shocked nor saddened by a show of support for him by his former colleagues.
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I know if I had a friend that was going through this, and even if he was guilty I would stick by him!