Earlier quoted context omitted.
He claimed the fund was worth millions when it was really worth zero.
But then he tripled their money...
That doesn't make his claims any less fraudulent.
Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
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Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#92It does say something depressing about our laws that he got sent to prison for the thing where he lied to rich people while still making them money rather than the thing where he extorted sick poor people...which is still fully legal even if the majority of society thinks it shouldn't.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not quite that easy, unfortunately. The vast majority of us, just by sheer ignorance of the contents of the enormous Federal Register, unknowingly commit at least a few federal felonies per year. If the Feds want you in prison, they'll find a way.
This is absolutely correct. There are shelves and shelves of laws that no one really knows. If someone wants to go after you, it won't take much research.
He didn't accidentally defraud people. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition, I noticed that our system punished him for defrauding the wealthy and not for jacking up drug prices, which harms the average American.
He didn't even defraud the wealthy. He played fast and loose but he won for his investors.
defrauding isn't synonymous with stealing- he did take the money under false pretenses. if I come to you for investment in my cool new startup that does distributed crypto machine learning ai for entertaining bored housecats on the blockchain and come back a year later having sextupled your investment in money from illegal arms smuggling, you've still been defrauded.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#95[deleted]
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for. Isn't that exactly what the justice system is in place to prevent?
No, it’s what the justice system is in place to formalize.
... in the US, apparently.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 3. Prosecutors, needing to do something got him on fraud charges where he misstated information on an investment but still tripled their money. I don't think the outcome should matter. Lying to investors should land you in jail. It shouldn't become okay "if investors still made money"
> I don't think the outcome should matter. According to the article, "prosecutors had pushed for at least 15 years, saying Shkreli had not shown remorse for his actions" How come the jury is allow to consider his alleged lack of remorse but is not allowed to consider the outcome ? Both are current events
If I push my wife off a cliff for life insurance but she falls onto and kills a terrorist or school shooter does that lessen my crime? Does it even change the nature of my crime? No so it shouldn't enter in.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#98Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…
3. .. tripled their money
haha no... he LOST their money (All of it), LIED about it (fraud), and paid them back with OTHER funds.
Get the facts right first. Misstated - information, the only misstatements are in your post.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
The justice system is theoretically supposed to be somewhat isolated from this by limitations on democracy. But we've sort of morphed our way out of half of those limitations and we're almost getting the bad stuff without getting the good. The system is very prone to mass public opinion, but there's hardly anything any one individual can do to actively participate in the system. There used to be a strict upper limit…
>At the same time, people can get hyped up about what they read in internet tabloids or are told through the media, and politicians will be forced to respond to that. This is spot on. That gives a heck of a lot of power to news organizations. That's scary when thinking of the quality and journalistic integrity of many, if not most news organizations. People react much more strongly to what they read/watch/listen to o…
I‘d say it gives a heck of a lot of power to influential Twitter users, the press just seems to react to them nowadays.
Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
He claimed the fund was worth millions when it was really worth zero.
But then he tripled their money...
He tripled their money using money that he earned from his pharma company not from his investments with their money, which doesn't sound like a crime, but it's basically a Ponzi scheme and is illegal. (If I remember correctly)