Arrest of Adelphia Founder and Two Sons
Re “Adelphia Founder, 2 Sons Are Charged With Fraud,” July 25: Hooray!
The man who sends out scare notices to his customers (“Cable Theft Is a Crime!”), who imposes his “morals” on others by personally censoring local public-access cable programs and charges inflated rates for lousy basic cable service (ever try getting a refund from Adelphia for poor or no reception? No way!) is finally where he belongs--facing charges of fraud and stealing from his shareholders on a massive scale.
Michael Hruska
Los Angeles
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When Adelphia Communications purchased Century Cable in Southern California, one of the first changes made was to eliminate all adult channels (Playboy, Spice, et al) because these channels offended the devoutly religious founder of Adelphia, John Rigas.
Apparently, however, perpetrating a fraud that reaches into billions of dollars is not offensive to Rigas’ religious principles.
Philip R. Blustein
Beverly Hills
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So the Rigases were arrested and taken away in handcuffs.
What I (and, I’m sure, many others) would like to know is, where are the handcuffs for “Kenny-Boy” Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow?
David McVey
Los Angeles
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Basketball star Allen Iverson, charged with crimes involving violence and a gun, is allowed to avoid arrest long enough to hold an all-night party. He then turns himself in.
After alerting the media, the government arrested 77-year-old Rigas and his sons on charges of fraud.
Why was it necessary to stage an elaborate production, including handcuffing the suspects and leading them to the waiting cars?
Was it done to serve as a warning of criminal prosecution, including public humiliation (cruel and unusual punishment) to business executives?
Or was it a grandstand play by the administration to fool the voting public into thinking that the administration had a tough policy toward business?
It certainly wasn’t because of a fear of violence or escape by the Rigas family.
David S. Robinson
Laguna Woods
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It is often said that a conservative is a liberal who was mugged. Now it may turn out that a liberal is a conservative whose 401(k) was mugged.
Paul Lerner
West Hollywood
