Does This Count as Overkill?

From a story in today’s Global Reinsurance newsletter

Executives guilty in Gen Re/AIG case – 26 February, 2008

Former Gen Re and AIG executives face more than 1,000 years in prison … 

Four former senior executives of General Reinsurance and one from American International Group were found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury.

Collectively the five defendants face more than a 1,000 years in prison and $213.5m in fines.

This is the case where the company executives were accused of setting up phony reinsurance schemes (about $500 million worth under which Gen Re undertook no risk) to make AIG’s bottom line look better.