Willful ignorance provides no legal defense against fraud

Evidence

According to the court testimony of Andrew Fastow, Enron’s chief financial officer, Skilling was neither blind to the fraudulent machinations nor naive about them. Fastow reported that Skilling pressured him to get “as much of that juice as you can” in hiding the debts in the partnerships the company created (Levine, 2006). In his instructions to the jury, the presiding judge explained that if the defendants intentionally shielded themselves from discovering what was going on, they could not claim ignorance (Barrionuevo, 2006). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1443

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the legal doctrine that deliberately staying uninformed is not a valid ignorance defense.