Idiot Award

The week’s winner brings our Idiot Award to a whole new level. Not only was his goal idiotic, but so was his method and outcome. He nailed it all! It’s like a Triple Crown of stupidity.

C. Clive Munro, a Wyoming stock analyst, was arrested from trying to extort money from Hardee’s. If there’s anything I learned it high school, it’s that you don’t screw with Hardee’s.

Munro demanded that CKE Restaurants, the owner of Hardee’s, hire him as a consultant for $25,000 a month. Hardee’s declined, so Munro showed them. He put a sell on the stock and down it went.

Most idiots would simply end there, but not our Mr. Munro. When the stupid get angry, they become a lethal force of anger (and stupidity). So Munro sent Hardee’s an e-mail.

”Hi Andy,” prosecutors said it read. “If you were smart, you would hire me at $25K per month for 12 months (for half my time) and take me out of the game. Plus, you would have vastly improved your relations with investors, and you might have avoided some of the current problems with Hardee’s. So far this year, this would have saved you $160 million in lost market value. That certainly beats shutting me out of asking questions on conference calls. You are getting some bad advice. Clive.”

Munro has been sentenced to a year and nine months in prison. I prefer to look on the bright side. He just might land that job in the fast food industry after all!

Posted by on August 8th, 2005 at 8:50 pm


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