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In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

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Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#31

Post by kenster07 »

rprasad wrote: post #12
ck2 wrote: post #5

In the USA they just buy the way out of the system - I mean look at all the people in prison for the default swaps and banking scandals. Oh wait, there aren't any.

That is because prison is not the punishment for most of those offenses. Before you say shit about the U.S. judicial system, you should learn something about it. SEC and FTC violations are civil offenses . The punishment for civil offenses are fines . Plenty of firms and higher-ups have paid fines. Jail time only applies in cases where deliberate fraud is proven to have occurred. We all know that the finance guys wer…

In China, financial fraud is punishable by death. It is at once crude and effective. The subprime bubble may never have ever occurred if the perpetrators knew they would literally be risking their lives.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#33

Post by tedunangst »

anonymoushn wrote: post #30
rprasad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because prison is not the punishment for most of those offenses. Before you say shit about the U.S. judicial system, you should learn something about it. SEC and FTC violations are civil offenses . The punishment for civil offenses are fines . Plenty of firms and higher-ups have paid fines. Jail time only applies in cases where deliberate fraud is proven to have occurred. We all know that the finance guys wer…

Wells Fargo admits to 55,000 counts of perjury: http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/28/us-usa-foreclosure...

The word perjury does not appear on that page.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#34

Post by KoulMomo »

tedunangst wrote: post #29
sehugg wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a low-level Countrywide loan officer that got 15 years in prison: http://www.fbi.gov/phoenix/press-releases/2012/former-countr... Here's the ex-CEO of Countrywide getting his criminal investigation dropped after settling with the SEC for $67.5 million: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/criminal-investigatio... I'm seeing a pattern here.

Does Bernie Madoff's sentence lie on or off the line connecting your two datapoints?

Bernie Madoff's mistake is that he screwed over other rich people.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#35

Post by tedunangst »

kenster07 wrote: post #31
rprasad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because prison is not the punishment for most of those offenses. Before you say shit about the U.S. judicial system, you should learn something about it. SEC and FTC violations are civil offenses . The punishment for civil offenses are fines . Plenty of firms and higher-ups have paid fines. Jail time only applies in cases where deliberate fraud is proven to have occurred. We all know that the finance guys wer…

In China, financial fraud is punishable by death. It is at once crude and effective. The subprime bubble may never have ever occurred if the perpetrators knew they would literally be risking their lives.

It is only effective against people the party doesn't like. State sanctioned fraud is less frequently punished.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#36

Post by stfu »

maximveksler wrote: post #22
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this story on Reddit yesterday. Really disappointed to see it here today, and even more disappointed to see such a cynical, shallow comment at the top of the page here, just as on Reddit.

Leaving the type of response this submit is getting, which is subjective to your POV. Are you disappointed simply because this was posted to HN ?

Most likely the top comment that tries to impose as a fact that the US and Chinese legal system are equally unfair.

Stating these kind of absolute, unproven, personal statements as absolute facts is (was?) frowned upon around here.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#37

Post by AJ007 »

tome wrote: post #28
sehugg wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a low-level Countrywide loan officer that got 15 years in prison: http://www.fbi.gov/phoenix/press-releases/2012/former-countr... Here's the ex-CEO of Countrywide getting his criminal investigation dropped after settling with the SEC for $67.5 million: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/criminal-investigatio... I'm seeing a pattern here.

You're seeing a pattern in two datapoints?

I see a pattern of off topic stories being posted to HN

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#38

Post by stfu »

Karunamon wrote: post #15
rprasad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because prison is not the punishment for most of those offenses. Before you say shit about the U.S. judicial system, you should learn something about it. SEC and FTC violations are civil offenses . The punishment for civil offenses are fines . Plenty of firms and higher-ups have paid fines. Jail time only applies in cases where deliberate fraud is proven to have occurred. We all know that the finance guys wer…

>We all know that the finance guys were too reckless in their pursuit of profits. But recklessness is not a crime (and indeed, the only crime in the U.S. system for which "recklessness" is relevant is manslaughter/murder). Perhaps this is a facet of law that people should lobby to get changed. The kind of wanton disregard shown by the finanical sector during the recent meltdown damn well should be a crime, if it isn'…

In my opinion rechlessness is necessary to bring society forward. This behavior induces change to the system and breaks the status quo. Sure, this has often bad consequences, but daring to break the status quo should be generally rewarded, and only regulated in cases where the negative impact on society gets too extreme/long term.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#39

Post by mtgx »

rprasad wrote: post #12
ck2 wrote: post #5

In the USA they just buy the way out of the system - I mean look at all the people in prison for the default swaps and banking scandals. Oh wait, there aren't any.

That is because prison is not the punishment for most of those offenses. Before you say shit about the U.S. judicial system, you should learn something about it. SEC and FTC violations are civil offenses . The punishment for civil offenses are fines . Plenty of firms and higher-ups have paid fines. Jail time only applies in cases where deliberate fraud is proven to have occurred. We all know that the finance guys wer…

So what you're saying is that fines are just the cost of doing business for the big fraudsters.

Re: In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time

#40

Post by [deleted] »

tedunangst wrote: post #35
kenster07 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China, financial fraud is punishable by death. It is at once crude and effective. The subprime bubble may never have ever occurred if the perpetrators knew they would literally be risking their lives.

It is only effective against people the party doesn't like. State sanctioned fraud is less frequently punished.

[deleted]
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