Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Criminalizing regulation
In recent years we have gone much too far in the criminalization of regulation. This point cannot be made too often, or too loudly.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue May 04, 01:13:00 PM:
This is a very significant issue for me on a very personal level.
In our case the prosecutors have used RICO violations in order to arrest a family member, who had employees underneath him committing insurance fraud.
The fact that the person who committed half the fraud said our family member had nothing to do with it is not relevant.
The fact that the other people had been fired from the company for other reasons like drugs and tardiness is not relevant either.
If more people knew how badly the system was being abused by prosectors there would be more of an outcry.
By , at
Wed May 05, 11:06:00 AM:
The option backdating scandal is instructive. A couple of CEOs were charged criminally by the federal DA for California's Northern District. Brocade's CEO had charges reversed over prosecutorial misconduct. Broadcom's CEO had his charges dismissed.
Importantly, Apple's Steve Jobs was just as "guilty." Same exact fact pattern about what Jobs did and what he knew when he did it. Same federal prosecutor had jurisdiction. But Jobs got a pass.
It's selective enforcement, obviously.
By , at
Thu May 06, 11:55:00 AM:
We are living in the time of Atlas Shrugged. As the quote below shows
"Did you really think we want those laws observed? said Dr. Ferris. We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be
much easier to deal with. ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957) {WMail Issue #23}"
I truely think this is their game. The government wants to be able to get you if you give them trouble
By lumpy, at
Tue May 11, 07:32:00 PM:
Oh. For a moment there I thought they were increasingly making regulation a crime.
