The "Please don't hurt me" Defense?

Scott Sullivan, the former CFO chief of WorldCom testified Tuesday that CEO Bernard Ebbers repeatedly ignored evidence that company finances were deteriorating and simply said, "We have to hit our numbers." Scott Sullivan said he told Ebbers the only way to meet Wall Street estimates for the third quarter of 2000 would be to book improper accounting entries to boost revenue and cover up expenses. "He looked at the information, and he didn't say a lot," Sullivan said. "He looked up and said, 'We have to hit our numbers."' Sullivan said he interpreted the remark as an instruction to go ahead with the improper entries.

I don't buy this defense, which has been / will be used by other CFOs and CAOs in the recent spate of fraud trials. If you are the CFO or CAO and the boss tells you to cook numbers, you grow a pair and refuse. That's all there is to it. Take away all the fancy business-speak, and it really is THAT simple. I mean, c'mon now, this defense boils down to, "He told me to to commit a crime, so I did." If a mugger tried that defense, we'd throw his butt in jail, right? Same for these guys, as far as I'm concerned.