More than a few of the con artists here denied their crimes –even in spite of tremendous evidence pointing to the bright, glaring truth: “Guity!”
For example, Richard Scrushy. To this day, Scrushy maintains he had nothing to do with the fraud that took place at HealthSouth — even though a half dozen co-conspirators testified against him. Scrushy proclaimed his innocence — even as the jury listened to a taped conversation in which he nervously asks about a wire.
Another approach is to only half-admit to wrongdoing. Yes, fraud took place. Yes, I was involved. But I had no choice! The scientologist swindler, Reed Slatkin, took this approach. He ran a huge Ponzi scheme for 15 years and stole millions. But.. but.. but… he was acting under “duress and diminished capacity.” He was being threatened by powerful and dangerous Scientologists. He was just trying to protect his family!
I guess when you’re in a courtroom, facing enraged victims and a long prison sentence, you can really come up with an alibi. Phyllis Stevens, an Iowa woman sentenced to six years in prison last week, had quite an explanation. She expressed regret for pocketing $6 million via wire and computer fraud; but there was a hitch to her confession. Stevens claims to have dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personalities. That’s right… one of her hundreds of personalities acted without her knowledge. “Robin and some of the other personalities took money out of the bank,” she told a psychiatrist. “When I became aware again as the core personality, I was sitting in a Walmart with about $30,000 in my purse.”
Wow.
What do you make of the fingerpointing fraudster? Do you have any good “It wasn’t really me” stories to share? Post in the comments!
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