article_snippet.sent: Wait, can companies even be charged with crimes?  
article_snippet.sent: It turns out a corporation can indeed be prosecuted like a person.
article_snippet.sent: Corporations don't have all the same inconvenient constitutional rights as citizens accused of crimes.
article_snippet.sent: Imprisoning convicted citizens is expensive, but corporate convictions, on the other hand, turn tidy profits for the U.S. government, with zero prison overhead.
article_snippet.sent: a company maintains that a company is innocent.
article_snippet.sent: a company has a point.
article_snippet.sent: The reason you don't see a lot of corporate trials is because most companies prefer to enter into such agreements; for a company, a public prosecution alone would be tantamount to a death sentence, whether or not a public prosecution alone's found guilty.
article_snippet.sent: Yes, our have been treating corporations as fictional "persons" for centuries in some ways -- but it's silly to treat them as persons in all ways.