Does Denver Chamber of Commerce Back Corporate Crime?

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/01/does-denver-chamber-of-commerce-back-corporate-crime/

by Mike Hall, Apr 1, 2008

The threat of doing some hard time for corporate crime is spurring Colorado’s business community to go to court to stop what The New York Times calls “the nation’s toughest corporate fraud law.”

In February, we reported the Colorado secretary of state’s office approved a ballot measure that would make CEOs and top execs personally liable if they commit fraud or condone it by not reporting it. It establishes both civil penalties and criminal—i.e., jail time. That approval opened the door for the measure’s backers to begin collecting the 76,000 voters’ signatures needed to place it on the November ballot.

The Times reports this morning that the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce will file a challenge to the measure in the state Supreme Court today.

The corporate crime measure—Initiative 57, Criminal and Civil Liability of Businesses and Individuals for Business Activities—is being backed by the group Protect Colorado’s Future, a coalition of community, environmental, union and other groups.

One of the leading voices for Initiative 57 is Lew Ellingson, a Qwest Communications International retiree. He spent 30 years with the telephone company that began as Northwestern Bell before morphing into Qwest.

FULL story at link.