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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

#171

Post by danso »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
bhouston wrote: post #5

He was so obnoxious that I guess it is easy to be happy about that, but he was so small time in the grand scheme of things. But nearly no bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crisis ever went to jail: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-wal...

One banker did. For 30 months. I think Shkreli was obnoxious and crude; the sentencing should've aligned with the crime. But America, so vengeance porn. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/magazine/only-one-top-ban...

He was also obnoxious and crude in a manner that made it near impossible for the judge to be generous in mitigating his sentence with regards to acceptance of responsibility. He couldn't even wait for an hour after being convicted before going on YouTube and bragging about how he thought he wouldn't face any prison time: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/martin-shkrelis-lawyers-fa...

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#172

Post by dragonwriter »

tedunangst wrote: post #139
dragonwriter wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal punishment in a republic [0] is exactly the institutionalization of the idea that offending the public has consequences. Hence, in the US, the popular styling of criminal cases as “The people vs. defendant ”. [0] a “republic” in the sense of a regime where government is notionally an institution for the interest of the public rather than a private property interest of a ruler or distinct ruling class; in non…

Wouldn't a more complete explanation mention constitution or code of laws or some such as well? Maybe some ex post Latin?

> Wouldn't a more complete explanation mention constitution or code of laws or some such as well?

Constitutions and codes of laws in a republic are intermediate tools to the effect discussed.

> Maybe some ex post Latin?

You mean, more than “republic” is ex post Latin?

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#173

Post by walshemj »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #39
jcoffland wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shkreli has repeatedly flaunted his wealth, privilege and false sense of superiority. Although not illegal, it's offensive. Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

In our system of law being offensive is not illegal and we are be wise to remind everyone of this.

Contempt of court is though

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#174

Post by brucephillips »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #152
rayiner wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not it doesn’t. Our legal framework doesn’t oblige you to save someone’s life just because you have the means to do so. If it did, we’d all be in big trouble—for the cost of a fully loaded MacBook Pro, you could save someone from malaria in Africa. The fact that people think a particular unpopular thing shouldn’t be legal doesn’t change that. There are a lot of things people believe should be illegal that aren’t ille…

I don't think the outrage was ever about Shkreli not saving someone's life. It was about Shkreli making lots of money from people's suffering, after artificially inflating the price of a drug that he controlled. In other words, getting rich from increasing the amount of misery in this world.

AFAIK, only the insurance companies paid his exorbitant prices.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#175

Post by s73v3r_ »

birken wrote: post #149
bhouston wrote: post #5

He was so obnoxious that I guess it is easy to be happy about that, but he was so small time in the grand scheme of things. But nearly no bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crisis ever went to jail: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/how-wal...

Like it or hate it, this is what the SEC does. You think Martha Stewart deserved jail time for making 50k in an insider trading scheme she didn't really care about? The SEC finds very public cases and then brings the hammer down in order to act a deterrent. Martin Shkreli broke the law, something he didn't have to do. It isn't like it was mob justice and some hugely biased jury convicted him of all the crimes he was…

The SEC, DOJ, et al also have limited amounts of resources. They just can't go after everyone.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#176

Post by zaroth »

walshemj wrote: post #168
hb3b wrote: post #14

Cruel and unusual given the crime. Half the sentence of Jeffrey Skilling who destroyed thousands of families. No question in my mind that the judge had it out for him from the get-go.

Yes going "fuck you judge" whilst on trial does tend to have that effect. Its also why contempt of court and malfeasance in public office has such harsh panties

Damn You Autocorrect.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#178

Post by s73v3r_ »

rayiner wrote: post #132
otalp wrote: post #92

It 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.

Not it doesn’t. Our legal framework doesn’t oblige you to save someone’s life just because you have the means to do so. If it did, we’d all be in big trouble—for the cost of a fully loaded MacBook Pro, you could save someone from malaria in Africa. The fact that people think a particular unpopular thing shouldn’t be legal doesn’t change that. There are a lot of things people believe should be illegal that aren’t ille…

There's zero rationality in allowing a critical drug (which the Epi-pen became) to have the price jacked up several hundred fold "just because".

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#179

Post by DanBC »

Clubber wrote: post #114
DanBC wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't accidentally defraud people. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Yes, but that's not the point. The point is the US government has many ways of throwing people in jail it doesn't like, including me or you. That's doesn't equate with a free society.

It doesn't seem relevant to the thread, where he knowingly and willingly engaged in a massive theft-related offence against large numbers of people.

That's not "the government is out to get you", that's "the government punishes crooks".

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#180

Post by wpietri »

rayiner wrote: post #132
otalp wrote: post #92

It 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.

Not it doesn’t. Our legal framework doesn’t oblige you to save someone’s life just because you have the means to do so. If it did, we’d all be in big trouble—for the cost of a fully loaded MacBook Pro, you could save someone from malaria in Africa. The fact that people think a particular unpopular thing shouldn’t be legal doesn’t change that. There are a lot of things people believe should be illegal that aren’t ille…

You mistakenly compare a failure to act ("save someone from malaria") with a clear purposeful action ("extorted sick poor people").

And there's no particular "higher purpose" of the law here that prevents us from making Shkreli's behavior illegal. Price gouging is illegal under other circumstances [1]; as far as I can tell his actions were legal just because nobody thought someone would be this awful.

If you'd like to defend this sociopath, please at least try to make your argument relate to the actual situation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging

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