Say You're Sorry—in a Newspaper Ad, Prosecutors Demand in Enviro Cases
Caught storing hazardous waste illegally, a Massachusetts company had to pay $100,000 in fines. But perhaps even more painful was the public statement it had to make—“It would have been a lot cheaper to obey the law!’’—in two trade publication ads.
Such public apologies have been pursued by federal prosecutors in plea bargains in corporate environmental cases for more than a decade, reports the Boston Globe. They are, of course, not only expensive but embarrassing, since they tend to put a spotlight on the environmental crime in the offender’s home community. Often, the apologies are printed in local newspapers.
“We want to deter criminal activity,’’ Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, tells the newspaper in an e-mail. “This is done in part through awareness of the law and its penalties.’’
Some doubt the deterrent value of such apologies, however, and say they are simply demeaning to the offender. “If you really want to deter this conduct,’’ says professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School, “you put company officials in jail.’’
