Rudolph Giuliani on Corporate Reform

ByABC News via logo
July 26, 2002, 1:46 PM

N E W   Y O R K, July 26 -- Rudolph Giuliani, New York City's former mayor, weighs in on corporate reform on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

ABCNEWS' CHARLES GIBSON: We turn now to Rudolph Giuliani, New York's former mayor, also aformer federal prosecutor who made his name prosecuting some of WallStreet's biggest financial criminals back in the 1980s. Corporatereform is a major topic of discussion in New York and Washingtonthese days, so an appropriate guest for us. And he joins us now. Good to have you with us.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Nice to be with you, Charlie.

GIBSON:Has this gotten out of hand? There's a pattern, executives falselybuilding up the profits of their company, the stocks go through theroof, they cash out. They've got millions to build mansions, and thepensioners and the other people, or stockholders are left holding thebag. Has it gotten out of hand?

GIULIANI:Well, sure. I mean, yeah, it's gotten out of hand in the sensethat a lot of it has happened all at once, at one period of time.Probably this has been going on for a long time, meaning maybe ahundred years in one way or another, or more. But the reality isa lot of it has happened in the last several years, maybe as aresult of the economy, the market and everything else.

GIBSON:Exacerbated by the moment, the markets are.

GIULIANI:Right. And we're finding out a lot more about it. Andalthough this a horrible thing, and it's a horrible thing for thepeople directly affected by it, as a society, this is a good thingfor us. Because

GIBSON:Why?

GIULIANI:Because we correct it. There's this imperfect way in whichwe get better; we find out about the bad things people are doing, theway in which they can abuse an otherwise good system, and then wecorrect it. And I think that's what you see happening in Congress. Ithink the president will sign the bill. And that, again, won't beperfect, but it'll be an improvement.