Companies do not commit crimes; only their agents do. And while a company might get the benefit of some such crimes, prosecuting the company would inevitably punish, directly or indirectly, the many employees and shareholders who were totally innocent.

Why should the court impose a judgment in a case in which the SEC alleges a serious securities fraud, but the defendant neither admits nor denies wrongdoing?

I was always attracted to taking a novel position, but one grounded in the materials I'd been given, not made up out of whole cloth.

Jed S. Rakoff Quotes