Hardly "The Gulag Archipelago"

August 28, 2021 11:41 AM

In 2016, Grant established what he called the White Collar Support Group, an online meeting inspired by twelve-step programs for drug and alcohol addiction. He described the program as a step toward “ethics rehab” and, on his Web site, explained that it was for people who wanted to “take responsibility for our actions and the wreckage we caused.” In blunter terms, he told me that it was for “guys detoxing from power and influence.” from Life After White-Collar Crime (The New Yorker) [Archive version]
posted by chavenet (9 comments total)

As someone who was forced to go to a rehab meeting (not for white collar crimes), I can assure you all that I got out it was the number of a good drug dealer. I have little doubt we will find at least some of these people finding a community of like minded people who convince them that a little fraud isn't bad.

a thirty-six-year-old former executive at nasa

The author notes this, but that is incredibly young to be an executive and indication of a career that has no-mistakes. I remember there being quite a few insider trading scandals precluded on the fact the SEC saw people who always bet right. I noticed in my career that a lot of people who succeeded were not the ones who took risks, were the smartest or the best. They were the ones who always aligned themselves with the winning team, eschewed responsibility and were able to project being successful. They wouldn't be the first on the beach of D-Day but on the 3rd or 4th wave and constantly remind you they were there.
posted by geoff. at 12:24 PM on August 28, 2021 [17 favorites]

Nobody has more remorse about getting caught than a white, male, white-collar criminal. Most of those guys sound like strivers who realized too late that they weren't high enough up the ladder to evade true consequences for their actions.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:38 PM on August 28, 2021 [8 favorites]

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed it.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:37 PM on August 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Since the turn of the millennium, the prosecution of white-collar crime has plummeted—but this should not imply a surge in moralism among our leading capitalists. After the attacks of September 11th, the F.B.I. began to shift resources toward counterterrorism. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers cut the budget of the Internal Revenue Service so sharply that it had the same number of special agents in 2017 as it had half a century earlier, even though the national population has grown by two-thirds.

Bit of a buried lede here. The pragmatist in me wants to say, "if these meetings actually keep some of these dudes from leeching off society, fine -- great -- lovely -- keep it up." But you know what would be a much more effective way of stopping these dudes from leeching off society? Funding the goddamn IRS.
posted by cubeb at 3:33 PM on August 28, 2021 [30 favorites]

He draws a distinction between his work and the industry of white-collar “prison coaches” who offer bespoke services for a price. Among them, Wall Street Prison Consultants promises to “ensure you serve the shortest sentence possible in the most favorable institution.” It sells consulting packages at the levels of Bronze, Silver, and Gold, the finest of which includes “Polygraph Manipulation Techniques,” “Prison Survival Orientation Coaching,” and an “Early Release Package” that helps clients apply for a drug-treatment program to reduce the length of a sentence.

I really don't know what to say about the fact that such services exist.
posted by TedW at 6:02 PM on August 28, 2021 [8 favorites]

Wall Street Prison Consutants
posted by TedW at 6:04 PM on August 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

I assume they took an aptitude test in high school and their guidance counselor told them their ideal career path was Wall Street prison consultant.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:06 PM on August 28, 2021 [7 favorites]

I love the smell of freshly oiled guillotines in the morning.
posted by birdsongster at 7:09 PM on August 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

Yeah, this piece sure isn't bending over backwards to make these people more sympathetic:

Each year, he took his wife and daughters on half a dozen “shopping vacations,” though they sometimes neglected to open the bags between trips.

I mean, I'll sometimes buy some tchotchke online that I don't have an immediate use for, but I don't think that that's the sort of price point that they're talking about.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:28 AM on August 29, 2021 [6 favorites]