Unlikely Hero: Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest who currently faces insider trading charges in connection to a fraud that almost sunk the Denver-based telecommunications company, is emerging as an unlikely hero in the phone records scandal.

According to a statement by Nacchio’s lawyer, after the government’s first approach in the fall of 2001, “Mr. Nacchio made inquiry as to whether a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request. When he learned that no such authority had been granted, and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process,” Nacchio concluded that the requests violated federal privacy requirements “and issued instructions to refuse to comply.”

The fact that Nacchio, an accused fraudster, has more courage and integrity than the CEOs of AT&T, Sprint and Verizon speaks volumes about the state of business ethics today.