Will Steve Jobs do jail time? It's been exercising the tittle-tattle of Californian bars for some time
No one assumes he's anything but guilty about fiddling the date of his stock options, but the question is one of policy: Does the US government want to put one of its business icons in pokey?
To those who reply: 'Absolutely not', the response is: 'Well they put Martha Stewart in jail and she was known to more Americans than Jobs'.
It's a pretty key point. They put Bernie Ebbers in jail. They were going to put Kenneth Lay in jail.
The US government's blood is up and they are looking for high-profile scapegoats to deter the insidious dishonesty of recent US business practice.
The revelation this week by Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson that he had warned Jobs about the 'accounting implications' of back-dating stock options, clearly means that Anderson has turned Queen's Evidence, or whatever they call it in the US.
Basically, he's going to sing. And if the CFO sings, Jobs will undoubtedly be found guilty if the government wants him found guilty. And jail will be the sentence if the government wants jail.
The question is, Does it?
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