The 2007 Hall of Shame

Joe Nacchio

How do you pile on a guy who's already been convicted of nineteen counts of insider trading and sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay back $52 million in illegal gains and a $19 million fine? Simple: You just keep in mind the tens of thousands of employees and investors who lost jobs, retirement savings or dignity while former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio unloaded his stock in advance of Qwest's near-collapse, and hope the three-judge panel now considering Nacchio's appeal keeps them in mind, too. When he was in power, Nacchio ran a company routinely blasted for poor service, dismal employee relations and questionable business and accounting practices. After he was forced out in 2002, it was revealed that he'd sold $52 million in stock at the same time he was pumping up the money-bleeding company to investors.

Mark Paschall

It takes a special kind of politician to inspire ire in the opposition as well as in his own party, and former Jefferson County treasurer Mark Paschall has that gift. So when Paschall, a four-term state representative before becoming Jeffco's treasurer, was indicted in January for offering an aide a $25,000 bonus in return for a cut of the money, his former Capitol colleagues could only laugh. Seriously, they laughed. "I'm saddened by this event," Republican senator Steve Johnson laughingly told Rocky Mountain News reporter Lynn Bartels. "But I don't think a lot of us are surprised." Others interviewees were less kind, including Democratic senators Lois Tochtrop ("Mark Paschall always wanted his picture on the front page. He finally got it") and Bob Hagedorn ("He looks good in county orange"). The right-wing conservative left behind a string of ill-advised, illogical and just plain ill headlines from his clashes with Jeffco commissioners and his legislative days. But that last, cheeseball act is probably how people will remember him most.

Until more sleaze spills out at Paschall's trial, now slated to start in February. Looks like 2008 is off to a sinfully shameful start.