Justice is for sale when it comes when it comes to big corporations and their executives. You don't have to look to Wall Street or Houston to find some rotten apples.

Let's begin with NorthWestern Energy. As the legislature sputtered to an end late last week, the federal agency that enforces financial fraud laws, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), settled complaints with four former top brass of NorthWestern. These execs were accused of manipulating information to conceal the financial condition of the company.

Any ability the Montana Public Service Commission may have had to avert the bankruptcy and its impact on Montana-based employees, rate payers and stock holders was subverted by manipulation. Under the leadership of these individuals and a few others, Northwestern restructured itself, drawing the Montana-based utility operation into a financial quagmire. The house of cards came crashing down and NorthWestern subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

This happened about four years ago. The fraud case has been winding through the SEC ever since. The SEC process must be more like an auction than a criminal prosecution. Last week four former NorthWestern execs settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay around $425,000, while not admitting anything. This came on the heels of an announcement that NorthWestern Corporation (in America corporations are people too) had settled with the SEC, not admitting violations of the law and but agreeing to "cease and desist" from such activity in the future.

Now let's turn to Qwest. Two weeks ago Co-chairman and CEO of Qwest Communications, Joe Nachio, was convicted on 19 of 42 counts of insider trading. Nachio and eight of his fellow execs were charged with violations of securities law for misrepresenting financial information about Qwest. Several of the execs agreed to pay penalties without admitting guilt. Nachio faces 10 years in prison, (less than the average pot dealer) when he is sentenced in July. He may also have to pay restitution on some of the $52 million in stock he sold at prices inflated by false information he was dishing out about his company.

Nachio is facing jail time. But, at least three of the officers charged at the same time have deals with the SEC. They are paying over $2 million in fines, interest and "disgorgement." Still, they make no admission of guilt.

All of this raises serious questions about our legal system and economic system. The corporation, which started as a nifty way to raise capitol and organize business activity, has become a virtual immortal citizen with all of the rights you and I enjoy as individual citizens. Unfortunately, as in the above cases, it has also become a vehicle to propagate bunko scams with impunity.

The enforcement process we have to police so-called white collar criminals is an elaborate monopoly game with get-out-jail cards going to the highest bidder. Our sense of justice should be offended by that.

We like to think these cases are rare exceptions. Usually our question is, how many rotten apples are in the barrel? Reading the news in the last couple of weeks our question ought to be, how rotten is the barrel?

Ken Toole is a member of the Public Service Commission and the chair of the Policy Institute, a Montana-based think tank working on economic issues.