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I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

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Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#81

Post by DannyBee »

vvpan wrote: post #75
guelo wrote: post #11

It's worth noting that both Kathryn Keneally, the assistant attorney general mentioned in this article, and Kevin Downing, the lead prosecutor that got him jailed, both now work for private law firms helping large corporations shelter their taxes.

Please tell more.

I have no evidence they help large corporations shelter taxes, but kathryn went to dla piper: https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/people/k/kathryn-keneally/

and Kevin went to Miller and Chevalier http://www.millerchevalier.com/OurPeople/KevinMDowning

Now, again, i'm a big believer in the various ethics rules bars have for what previous government lawyers are allowed to do and not do.

But they still have to be able to get jobs.

Kevin spent 16 years in government. It's not a blood oath not to go to a private law firm and be on the other side of the table, anymore than working at Google for 16 years is a blood oath to not go work at apple or facebook.

Arguments that they use their previous experience/knowledge to abuse the system (by getting favors, etc) need to be backed up with evidence, not handwaving, because they are serious allegations.

If they did, great, lock them up. But their skill sets prety much only lend them to two types of work: Prosecuting people for civil/criminal tax law, and defending people being prosecuted in civil/criminal tax law.

It's not like you can reasonably say "they used to work at the DOJ so now they have to go work at the zoo".

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#82

Post by tanderson92 »

tptacek wrote: post #24
Cerium wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? That makes no sense to me. Like it being wrong to work part time because you pay less taxes.

It is so much weirder than that. Vanguard's signature benefit is the way its organized: rather that a company that owns and manages funds, it's a collection of funds that own and share the management company. All of the expenses and overhead involved in managing the funds come directly out of the returns of the fund, so the company and its investors have aligned incentives. The problem is that the funds have a client…

It's even wilder than that, because the former tax lawyer relied on a strange quirk of NY State Law which allows individuals to sue on behalf of the state. That is, the suit was titled "State of New York ex rel David Danon v. Vanguard Group, Inc."

note the ex rel -- it wasn't a personal suit against Vanguard !

This case was utterly bizarre and completely fascinating; the Bogleheads forum have perhaps the most informed discussion on the internet of this case: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=143686

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#83

Post by jacquesm »

tptacek wrote: post #27
rhizome wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're undervaluing time spent locked up.

I would do 3 years for $100MM. I would do the next three years for $100MM, and they're pretty important years in my family! Someone offer me $100MM to be imprisoned for the next three years; I will put my money where my mouth is on this.

What if they were the last three years of your life?

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#84

Post by JakeAl »

His book: http://lucifersbanker.com/

As secretary of state, in an unusual move Hillary Clinton intervened with UBS to help it out with the IRS and DOJ. He seems to imply that Hillary brokered the treaty to release the 52,000 names -- a deal which they backed out of citing Swiss law after only providing 4,500 names -- because of the global corporate elites tied to our government, politicians from all over the globe and CIA who would be implicated. He notes that the CIA funneled the money from Iran-Contra through a Swiss bank account, and the plane used to deliver the 400 million in unmarked cash to Iran came from Geneva. He also thinks it was the CIA that leaked the Panama Papers, selectively exposing names.

After Hillary's deal, the Swiss bank paid Bill Clinton $1.5 million for speaking gigs. Total donations by UBS to the Clinton Foundation grew from less than $60,000 through 2008 to a cumulative total of about $600,000 by the end of 2014, according the foundation and the bank.

There is no evidence of any link between Hillary's involvement in the case and the bank’s donations to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, or its hiring of Mr. Clinton. But her involvement with UBS is a prime example of how the Clintons' private and political activities overlap.

It should also be noted that in 2011 the Clinton Foundation announced a partnership with UBS on the CEO-UBS Small Business Advisory Program which connects "small businesses" with - One-on-one pro-bono strategic financial and business counseling - Access to the entire suite of UBS's resources, including senior leaders within the firm's marketing, human resources, operations and Investment Banking divisions - Opportunities to network with industry influencers and major decision makers in both the private and public sectors.

The ten small businesses enrolled in the program had average annual revenues of $8.44 million in 2010 and together employed a total of 400 people at the end of 2010. The entrepreneurs and their companies who participated are: Julie Azuma, Different Roads to Learning, Inc.; Dinesh and Josh Boaz, Direct Agents, Inc.; K.Y. Chow, GM Printing; Richelieu Dennis, Sundial Creations; Kenny Lao, Rickshaw Dumpling Bar; Tamara Mangum-Thomas, Sharpened Image, Inc.; Mike DiMarino, Linda Tool; Marjorie Perry, MZM Construction & Management Company, Inc.; Jeffrey Smalls, Smalls Electrical Construction, Inc.; and Larry Velez, Sinu.

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#86

Post by pyvpx »

tedunangst wrote: post #51
roel_v wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll do it for $90MM though, pick me! Pick me!

This would make for an interesting loser pays auction.

if you assume a 4-5% return on the money, only want to live off the returns (not the principal) and "six figures" (say, $250,000) is enough as yearly, net income...the lowest a person would go is about USD$6.7MM (after tax, of course)

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#87

Post by Terr_ »

rjbwork wrote: post #78
Terr_ wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the data you provide is so damning you don't even need to prove that you're a reliable source, then you could submit it anonymously, as an encrypted block along with a public key to decrypt it. Then, if things look favorable, you can step forward and prove your identity by supplying the matching private-key. I expect the problem is that first "if" -- authorities may want to be super-sure of the origin of the infor…

Sorry, an encrypted block? A public key? Like, for my desk drawer? A private key? But i alreaady gave the public key out how can it be private too? See where i'm going with this? You've put a massive technical stumbling block on non-technical folks in order to expose wrong-doing.

Only if they do it from scratch. However, most of the possible encryption options and complicated parts of PKI aren't needed or relevant for this use-case.

It's arguably even simpler than a zip-file utility when it comes to workflows.

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#88

Post by jrockway »

jacquesm wrote: post #83
tptacek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would do 3 years for $100MM. I would do the next three years for $100MM, and they're pretty important years in my family! Someone offer me $100MM to be imprisoned for the next three years; I will put my money where my mouth is on this.

What if they were the last three years of your life?

Interesting thought but I would take the same deal as Thomas.

I also think your question can be generalized.

Waiting for the train, you hear the announcement "an uptown A train is 4 minutes away from west 4th st." "What if these are the last 4 minutes of my life?"

Waiting at a red light, looking at the countdown clock in the other direction: "What if these are the last three seconds of my life"?

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#89

Post by jacquesm »

jrockway wrote: post #88
jacquesm wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if they were the last three years of your life?

Interesting thought but I would take the same deal as Thomas. I also think your question can be generalized. Waiting for the train, you hear the announcement "an uptown A train is 4 minutes away from west 4th st." "What if these are the last 4 minutes of my life?" Waiting at a red light, looking at the countdown clock in the other direction: "What if these are the last three seconds of my life"?

When the time scale is seconds and you are in your middle age death is not what's on your mind. But when you're talking about years then that changes. Every year has a statistical likelihood of being your last, the older you get the bigger that chance (once you're out of infancy). Even if the distribution were flat then you'd be looking at something along the lines of 3/70th so roughly 4.5% or so for three years.

I've buried enough people in their middle age by now to not take the next three years for granted.

You can't take it with you.

Re: I Won $104M for Blowing the Whistle But Was the Only One Who Went to Jail

#90

Post by jrockway »

jacquesm wrote: post #89
jrockway wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting thought but I would take the same deal as Thomas. I also think your question can be generalized. Waiting for the train, you hear the announcement "an uptown A train is 4 minutes away from west 4th st." "What if these are the last 4 minutes of my life?" Waiting at a red light, looking at the countdown clock in the other direction: "What if these are the last three seconds of my life"?

When the time scale is seconds and you are in your middle age death is not what's on your mind. But when you're talking about years then that changes. Every year has a statistical likelihood of being your last, the older you get the bigger that chance (once you're out of infancy). Even if the distribution were flat then you'd be looking at something along the lines of 3/70th so roughly 4.5% or so for three years. I'v…

We're all wasting our time anyway. An hour a day of commuting, 8 hours of work, 4 minutes brushing your teeth, 8 hours sleeping, an hour here and there trolling Hacker News... there's half your life right there.

Look at it as getting paid $6,000 an hour to read books for three years. Not the worst gamble someone my age could take.

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