After swimming through some of the evidence put on display last week by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office, you can't help but tip your hat to Jack Grubman.

The evidence, dug up during an investigation of 10 of the nation's largest investment banks, showed that, if nothing else, former Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) telecom analyst Jack Grubman was right about many of the stocks he covered (see Salomon Slammed in Settlement).

For instance, Jack Grubman thought Focal Communications Corp.'s stock was a "pig," according to an email he wrote to a colleague. And he was right. Focal has never reported a profit. Between 1996 and 2000 it reported some $138 million in net losses.

The problem: Grubman and his colleagues consistently urged investors to buy Focal's stock, even when it was clear that the pig was never going to fly. So, while Focal was burning through loads of cash, Grubman and friends were still protecting it, while it paid about $11.8 million in banking fees to SSB, the bank that underwrote the carrier's IPO in 1999.

Here's a snapshot of what Grubman did, and what he hid, regarding Focal...

Today Focal continues to work on its reorganization and the chore of making itself less... well, hammy. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Not many are happy with the pusillanimous punishment handed to Grubman and the investment banks after all their years of deceit and misinformation.A full 73 percent of those who have taken Light Reading's Crime and Punishment poll so far say the punishments handed out in the analyst scandal should have been more severe. About 84 percent feel Grubman should face jail time for his actions.

— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading