Houston's own Steven Jay Russell is a real-life confidence man. His accomplishments include stealing millions of dollars from various firms while employed under assumed identities and escaping from multiple different prisons. At one point he did so by convincing prison doctors he had died of AIDS. He eventually ended up with an unprecedented 144-year prison sentence.
Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and others at Enron stole billions of dollars from shareholders by misleading Enron's board of directors and audit committee. Lay himself, the Danny Ocean of this corporate caper, only ended up with a 45-year sentence, a slap on the wrist compared to Russell's. And Lay died of a heart attack before he could even see the inside of a cell.
Steven Jay Russell is a genius. An actual, certifiable genius. His IQ is reported to be 163. It is a gross injustice that a man of such intelligence now sits in solitary confinement for crimes which were all totally non-violent. Crimes which serve as examples of the gaping holes in bureaucracy and security of the various institutions he swindled, on top of showing us all what a person with a powerful brain can be capable of. He is unable to put his mind to good use at a time when this country, and truly the world, need it the most.
It would be better if Russell's story ended in a way similar to Frank Abagnale's, depicted in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. Like Russell, Frank Abagnale was an escape artist who assumed multiple false identities to commit crimes. His specialty of writing forged checks allowed him to steal millions of dollars from banks all over the world. He now works as a consultant for the FBI and advises American businesses on fraud.
This ex-conman gets to apply his skills to making the world a better place, why not Steven Jay Russell?
