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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

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) origination fraud is a crime. The GFC was not caused by law abiding activities. It was fraud, plain and simple. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/bank-america-pay-1665-billion... As part of the RMBS Working Group, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey conducted a FIRREA investigation into misrepresentations made by Merrill Lynch to investors in 72 RMBS throughout…

"Fraud" can be civil fraud, or criminal fraud. Criminal fraud is something like "they said they were going to sell me something, but just took my money instead." Civil fraud might be something like "they sold me 10-inch sandwiches as 12-inch sandwiches." What you're describing in the paragraph above is even one step removed from the sandwiches. Knowing that "loans had material underwriting and compliance defects" doe…

This article [1] states that the nature of the offense doesn't necessarily distinguish civil from criminal fraud, but rather the party pursuing the legal action:

> A single act of fraud can be prosecuted as a criminal fraud by prosecutors, and also as a civil action by the party that was the victim of the misrepresentation.

> It might lead to an inference to that effect, but it's not indisputable proof.

Again we're back to the lack of evidence not implying innocence if the supposed crime wasn't adequately investigated. That's what an investigation is for, to find and assemble evidence for a suspected crime.

Its a common belief that no serious effort to incriminate top bankers was initiated. To me it is beyond argument at this point. Do you still believe that is a questionable supposition?

[1] http://bochettoandlentz.com/criminal-fraud-vs-civil-fraud-wh...

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

#424
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not at all what's being said. There are far more possible cases that could be prosecuted than there are resources to prosecute them, so to better discourage all crime they will tend to go after higher profile targets, in particular those who flaunt their criminality. Similarly, cops don't spend all their time giving out tickets to every single jaywalker or every single speeder. That would be a waste of their t…

> But they need to give out some tickets every once in a while or else the law becomes meaningless. This has actually been shown to be a very bad idea. It is way better to punish immediately, even if lightly, every single transgression than to do it randomly but more severely. (Probably because we're all thinking "it won't happen to me".) What you're saying afterwards is "the mundanes should not taunt their rulers".…

Shkreli is one of the “little people”?

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

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that they can't go after everyone doesn't mean that they should punish Shkreli extra hard for what amounts to being a jerk.

One would assume however, that given the choice between 1) guy who lied to investors, still made them money (ie. Shkreli) 2) guy who lied to investors, lost 90% of their money (for example, ironically, Clinton's son in law [2], who has lost more money than the GDP of about 70 countries, and yet [3] happened) They would have a strong preference for 2). But the SEC is a HUGE example of selective justice. Harsh "correct…

[2] and the links going from it don't suggest anything about "lying to investors", merely making bad bets in Greece shortly before the crisis, in a fund that was advertised as making bets in Greece. Got a source about that, or is the argument just that everyone loosing a lot of money has to be fraudulent?

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

#427

To give some background on how his sentencing increased so dramatically, initially he was convicted but since no one lost any money his sentencing guidelines were 0-12 months(most likely no jail time since it was his first offence). As a general rule of thumb in federal fraud cases sentencing is primarily determined by the what's called the "loss amount" of the crime in question. But a couple weeks ago the judge deci…

> initially he was convicted but since no one lost any money his sentencing guidelines were (...) So.. If I try to rob a bank and fail and no money is stolen, then the sentence should be reduced?

Running a hedge fund in completely different than robing a bank. You should use at least an iota of intelligence before commenting.

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

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then he tripled their money...

If I steal money and use it to buy lottery tickets, it doesn't become less of a crime if win and am able to pay the money back.

You don't know his case, you better not comment.
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