The news that the police have seized French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel's personal computer reminds us of a important rule of criminal behavior: don’t have anything incriminating on your home computer. We’re not just talking about a spreadsheet detailing your phony hedges. Anything that is even embarrassing to you or your friends and family can—and probably will—be used against you by the authorities. Legal culpability or admissibility is no guarantee of safety. Emails about an illicit affair? That’ll end up in the papers. Awkward conversations about a drunken weekend? You’ll be hearing about that on the evening news. Huge collection of music downloads? You're not only a rogue trader, you're a copyright pirate. That'll make the news. The point is to drive the accused to confess, by almost any means necessary.
We can hope that this kind of abusive prosecution might someday be stopped. By hoping isn’t a strategy. Erasing your hard-drive is.
SocGen trader's PC seized from brother's flat [Reuters]
Posted by , Jan 31, 2008 4:50PM
Would downloaded 2girls1cup be entered as evidence?
Posted by Anal_yst , Jan 31, 2008 4:54PM
So wait, all that borderline-legal pron can get you in trouble? Anyone know where to get a sizeable electro-magnet?
Posted by Anonymosity , Jan 31, 2008 4:58PM
I hear Jerome is a big Journey fan.
Posted by Steven Perry , Jan 31, 2008 5:00PM
Remember Jerome, the wheel in the sky keeps on turnin...
Posted by Bess Fan No. 1 , Jan 31, 2008 5:43PM
Keep away from pacemaker, automobile, braces, etc.
http://www.semshred.com/content606.html
Posted by quant_wannabe , Jan 31, 2008 6:27PM
it's called TrueCrypt. learn to love it.
Posted by PJ , Jan 31, 2008 7:14PM
Darik's boot and nuke. Then they cannot find your German, midget beastiality downloads
Posted by FRAT STUD , Jan 31, 2008 11:24PM
Guys at my high school wiped their hard drives all the time, it was no big deal.
Posted by French Lover , Jan 31, 2008 11:32PM
I thought in France the stuff you're talking about was not just tolerated but even endorsed by the authorities. After all, their prez is banging his mistress!
Posted by Disinterested Observer , Feb 01, 2008 1:35AM
Sarkozy is no longer married, so the beauteous Carla Bruni is not his mistress, but his steady girlfriend. New Yorkers may be amazed that a divorce can be arranged in such a short time. Naturally, adult relations between Sarkozy and Carla have transpired.
It was the married Mitterand who had the mistress and a love child to boot. Sarkozy is trying to convince the French that divorce and post-divorce dating are much less hypocritical than the traditional French approach of staying married and keeping a mistress.
Thanks for the thoughts on the evidentiary value of personal computers. Who knows what will happen when McCain makes Giuliani Director of Homeland Security. And you thought that being forced to take your shoes off at the airport was annoying!