NEW YORK — NEW YORK -- In his 30-year legal career, Judge Jed Rakoff had pretty much seen it all when it came to white-collar crime. He even taught a course on it at Columbia Law.
He had prosecuted countless fraud cases and spent 12 years on the federal bench.
But Rakoff couldn't seem to quite figure out what had corrupted the woman sitting before him on that January day in his courtroom, No. 14B, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Carole Diane Argo was a 46-year-old mother of three, Cub Scout pack founder, volunteer, active church member and caretaker of her widowed sister's family. More than 100 people had written letters to the court in her behalf. "There is not a selfish or self-serving bone in her body," one read.
Behind her, the courtroom was packed with friends and family for her sentencing. Many of them had relied on Argo for financial or emotional support, like Jennifer Brown. Her daughter is gravely ill, and Argo has stepped in to care for Brown's son when needed, as well as tend to her daughter.
More than a dozen former colleagues at SafeNet Inc. also made the trip to back Argo, even though she had devastated their Belcamp encryption-technology company. Argo changed the dates on stock option awards to inflate their value, which by itself isn't illegal. But she broke the law by covering up the alterations, known as "backdating." It was the equivalent of using weighted dice, turning a game of chance - the stock market - into a sure winner.
Argo was one of the first executives in the nation to face criminal charges over backdating. But she had never gotten so much as a speeding ticket before, according to Maryland court records. And she wasn't even a very good criminal. She didn't pocket a penny from the options scheme, while co-workers netted millions.
Her family's home in Baltimore's Guilford neighborhood was certainly comfortable, but also one of the more modest on her street. She didn't wear flashy clothes or take lavish vacations.
A big chunk of her salary went to pay for grade-school tuition: Her three kids attend private schools that cost $20,000 apiece each year, and after her brother-in-law died in 2004, she began paying tuition for her sister's two children as well. But there were no signs of financial desperation.
This was a convicted felon? It all made no sense. Nothing explained the leap into criminal behavior.
