What caused the legal issues? Spoiler!
I'm not sure I fully understood what the dad did and what Paul Rudd was being accused of. Was it an insider trading type of deal? Could someone explain it to me, please?
shareIt seemed to be something about falsely reporting salary figures for staff analysts to cover for money that was used to bribe an Egyptian official. The specifics don't really matter to the plot, only that somebody was in deep poo.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for a day. Light a man on fire & he's warm for the rest of his life!
Thanks! I guess they were vague on purpose.
shareYes vague On purpose. We as the audience are "in the know" as much as George. We don't have any clue what is really going on. Even after it's somewhat explained by the Dad.
Baysplosions!
http://tiny.cc/va4vZ
I think this much is correct: As far as I could figure out (and I covered the Wall Street scandals 10 years ago), Rudd's character, in his capacity as president of the company, signed off on the corporate financial-performance information that was provided to Wall Street analysts and the investing public. It turns out those numbers were doctored, but Rudd's character never verified the information because he trusted his dad. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which was passed after the Enron debacle, corporate officers who sign off on fraudulent financial data can be held criminally liable and sent to prison, even if they didn't personally cook the books (part of the purpose of the law is to prevent high corporate officials from blaming subordinates for releasing incorrect financial information.) I think Rudd's character made a fleeting, oblique reference to that at one point.
Now, what bribing the Egyptian official had to do with all this, I have no idea. It's a violation of US law for corporations to bribe foreign officials, but it seems unlikely that Rudd's character could have been implicated in that. His dad may have told him that story as a way of preparing him for the even more disturbing news to follow -- as in, here's one reason why you can no longer believe your father is an honest businessman. Now here's an even bigger one.
Ok, then here's my question to you mjz: would Paul Rudd's character be able to make the decision on who should go to jail? Since he was the president and was ultimately the one responsible for the financials, was it really plausible for him to essentially "tell" on his dad and get out of going to prison himself?
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