Richard Altomare Gets Sprung (Without a Hacksaw)

All good things must come to an end

Famed anti-naked-shorting activist Richard Altomare, ex-CEO of the Universal Express stock fraud, was ordered released today from incarceration at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, according to court records.

Altomare was tossed in the clink in early May, and ordered to rot there until he paid back some of the millions of dollars he stole from the company. He never did, so he just stayed there, while his supporters carried out an obscenity filled email-spam campaign. Judge Gerald Lynch believes that further imprisonment won't do any good.

Lamentable as it is to see Altomare walking the streets with respectable citizens, I think that Lynch has a point. And besides, Altomare should really be held accountable by a court of law, and on criminal charges, and not for civil contempt. That's a kind of backdoor way of getting justice.

So the question remains: where is the U.S. Attorney, anyway? By not prosecuting a slug like Altomare, George Bush's Justice Department is proving yet again that it turns a blind eye toward white collar wrongdoing.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.