Enron's former CFO Andrew Fastow caught a big break from the sentencing judge today. Instead of the ten year sentence he agreed to in his plea agreement, (pdf) the Judge granted him leniency and sentenced him to only six years.

As I wrote here about Bernie Ebbers (who entered prison today) and Scott Sullivan, there is something morally bankrupt about a system that allows a defendant who exercises his constitutional right to go to trial to get 25 years while a codefendant with greater or equal culpability who cooperates with the Government and tells the Government's truth at trial when testifying against that defendant gets five years.

Was Jeffrey Skilling, who faces a possible 185 years, but is likely to get far less, let's say 30 years, five times more culpable than Fastow? No. He was convicted with Fastow's testimony. purchased by the Government with promises of years of freedom.

The whole thing stinks.