Would You Support a Bill Making It Easier to Jail Executives for Company Abuses?

What’s the story?

• Presidential-candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has unveiled legislation that would make it easier to criminally charge executives if they or their corporations break the law or commit civil violations.

What’s in the Corporate Executive Accountability Act?

• The act would widen criminal liability laws to include “negligent executives" of corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
• Executives would be penalized if they repeatedly break the law or breach civil statues, including those protecting personal data or consumers’ safety.
• Executives could face up to a year in jail for a first violation, and up to three years for a second violation.

What are people saying?

• "We all agree that any executive who intentionally breaks criminal laws and leaves a trail of smoking guns should face jail time," Warren wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Tuesday evening.

"But right now, they can escape the threat of prosecution so long as no one can prove exactly what they knew, even if they were willfully negligent."

• Financial analyst Jim Cramer, however, told CNBC that he believes Warren is going about executive liability the wrong way.

“The way we go after executives is that we fine them, and the executives don’t pay a thing. The shareholders do. And we have to change that. To make sure that the executive pays. We single out the executive and we don’t bang the shareholder.”

What do you think?

Do you support the Corporate Executive Accountability Act? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / Marc Nozell)