“What a Shame!”

Disgracefully resigned Businessmen = Most of the CEOs of the businesses who were in the accounting irregularities scandals, such as WorldCom and Enron, have been resigned in disgrace last year. Nevertheless, “The value of the real estates possessed under their names are enormous”, the Wall Street Jounral reported on 17th. Compare to the average increase of 7% on houses owned by ordinary Americans, the houses owned by the CEOs of the businesses, which were involved in the irregularity absurdity scandals, increased by about 40%.

Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International who has been suspected of tax evasion and embezzlement of the company`s money, is about to lose his 16.8 million dollar house registered under his name. He has bought it with the company`s fund and the company is planning to sell it to secure ready funds. However, he could still have a comfortable life in his 5.7 million dollar house in Nantucket. The mansion owned by Gary Winnick, the former CEO and the founder of Global Crossing, is in the huge remodeling work for over 18 months even during the company`s bankruptcy. Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron, has put his two houses in Oklahoma for sale. The one on the riverside is for 6.15 million dollars, which is similar to when it was originally purchased. However, the other house, which was bought at 4.8 million dollars, has gone up to 5.5 million dollars. Michael Milken, the former CEO of Knowledge Universe, who has served 22 months in prison for the security fraud charge, bought a house for 0.68 million dollars in 1977 but currently this has gone up to 2.5 million dollars.

Charles Conerway, the former CEO of K-Mart, which bankrupted in January of last year, bought his house for a low price from an auction during the mid 1990s. The house was sold in auction due to its owner being imprisoned for the money laundering charge. This house received a nick name of `the cursed house` when both of the former and the current owners got imprisoned or bankrupted. The former CEO of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers, has two big ranches in Mississippi and Louisiana. It is known that since he has borrowed and used 415 million dollars from the company, he is at the verge of having to sell these ranches.

Seung-Jin Kim sarafina@donga.com