Apparently, 27 months of home arrest is good enough when the statutory sentence was 28 years in prision. Nice. Who says justice is blind?
WSJ.com - Ex-Wal-Mart Official Gets Home-Confinement Sentence Former No. 2 executive at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Thomas Coughlin, was sentenced to 27 months of home confinement and five years' probation for stealing money, merchandise and gift cards from the retailer. His sentence also included a $50,000 fine and $400,000 in restitution.
The 57-year-old Mr. Coughlin, a protégé of late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, faced a maximum of 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He also could have been fined as much $1.4 million.In court in January, Mr. Coughlin specifically admitted defrauding the world's largest retailer to pay for the care of his hunting dogs, lease a private hunting area, upgrade his pickup truck, buy liquor and a cooler, and receive $3,100 in cash. The items were worth a minuscule amount when compared to his $1 million-plus salary.
Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., referred Mr. Coughlin to federal prosecutors after alleging he took money, goods and gift cards valued at up to $500,000 over a period of at least seven years before he retired in early 2005.
Wal-Mart made further allegations of embezzlement and theft in a separate civil lawsuit it filed last year seeking to revoke Mr. Coughlin's multimillion-dollar retirement package. That suit alleges that Mr. Coughlin used tricks including false expense reports to buy things as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix.
Law and order Republicans, all the way, until their name comes up.
and loved this tidbit:
No mention was made in Mr. Coughlin's public filings with the court of his earlier claim that he used money obtained from Wal-Mart to pay for anti-union activism. Wal-Mart has said there was no such project.
I imagine the Wal-Mart council said, privately, to Mr. Coughlin: we'll agree to the at-home sentence, if you drop this damaging anti-union claim.
Tags: litigation, /Wal-Mart
