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>presuming the powerful and guilty will walk free By and large, they do. The fact that this incident makes to the top of the “news” is testament. If things wer

>presuming the powerful and guilty will walk free By and large, they do. The fact that this incident makes to the top of the “news” is testament. If things were different, an exec going to jail would be as commonplace as a convicted felon going to jail, and it would hardly be newsworthy.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> The fact that this incident makes to the top of the “news” is testament Volkwagen is one of the world's largest companies. That's why it's headline news. A billionaire drug company's ex-CEO was arrested last year [1]. Nobody outside the Arizona, pharmaceutical or opioid crisis circles noticed. Nobody outside those circles needs to notice. [1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/drug-companys-billionaire-ceo-arrested-nationwide-bribery-scam/story?id=50737965 https://abcnews.go.com/US/drug-companys-billionaire-ceo-arre...
- alfredallan1 8y ago
  That was in fact a bribery case - they were convicted for bribing docs to prescribe their meds where it wasn’t necessary. But you’re right that phrama company execs are slightly more liable to be actually convicted (Martin Shkrelli is a very good case in point). While many in pharma still get off scot free thanks to solid lawyers, one can only hope for similar results in other industries.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    A sentence of X is a sentence of X regardless of what charge you're convicted on. Dig up a massive amount of dirt and sift through it until you find something that has the kind of sentence you're looking for and you can easily make a conviction on (regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with the crime at hand) is prosecuting crimes 101. Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, Al Capone, etc, etc. Now, this is a crappy solution because it basically relies on the proliferation of criminal law and catch-all laws (both of which are bad IMO) and the fact that given any random thirteen people you can convince twelve of them that the thirteenth is a criminal if you have enough information about the 13th. Ideally charges would be related to the crime but that's not a practical strategy for prosecuting well connected defendants at present.
    - alfredallan1 8y ago
      True… a scumbag in one area wouldn’t hesitate extending their scumbaggery skills to other areas if they stand to gain something.
qaq 8y ago
How it even theoretically can be as common place as "convicted felon going to jail" ?
- alfredallan1 8y ago
  If your point of contention is that corporate crime is not as common place as regular felony, you’re right, my statement might have been better phrased. The point I was trying to make is the percentage of convicted felons getting jail time ought to be close to the percentage of companies (i.e. their executives) guilty of egregious violations and abuses getting jail time.
  - himom 8y ago
    Q: America has minor drug users incarcerated for life, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, save Seychelles. How many Wall St. bankers, corrupt DC lobbyists or public officials are in jail for their crimes? A: very few, just to make an ostensible show of a statement now and then to mollify the people during tough times. The bigger the crime, the lesser the time.
    - frockington 8y ago
      Audi/VW/Porsche are not American companies

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> The fact that this incident makes to the top of the “news” is testament Volkwagen is one of the world's largest companies. That's why it's headline news. A billionaire drug company's ex-CEO was arrested last year [1]. Nobody outside the Arizona, pharmaceutical or opioid crisis circles noticed. Nobody outside those circles needs to notice. [1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/drug-companys-billionaire-ceo-arrested-nationwide-bribery-scam/story?id=50737965 https://abcnews.go.com/US/drug-companys-billionaire-ceo-arre...

alfredallan1 8y ago
That was in fact a bribery case - they were convicted for bribing docs to prescribe their meds where it wasn’t necessary. But you’re right that phrama company execs are slightly more liable to be actually convicted (Martin Shkrelli is a very good case in point). While many in pharma still get off scot free thanks to solid lawyers, one can only hope for similar results in other industries.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  A sentence of X is a sentence of X regardless of what charge you're convicted on. Dig up a massive amount of dirt and sift through it until you find something that has the kind of sentence you're looking for and you can easily make a conviction on (regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with the crime at hand) is prosecuting crimes 101. Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, Al Capone, etc, etc. Now, this is a crappy solution because it basically relies on the proliferation of criminal law and catch-all laws (both of which are bad IMO) and the fact that given any random thirteen people you can convince twelve of them that the thirteenth is a criminal if you have enough information about the 13th. Ideally charges would be related to the crime but that's not a practical strategy for prosecuting well connected defendants at present.
  - alfredallan1 8y ago
    True… a scumbag in one area wouldn’t hesitate extending their scumbaggery skills to other areas if they stand to gain something.

qaq 8y ago

How it even theoretically can be as common place as "convicted felon going to jail" ?

alfredallan1 8y ago
If your point of contention is that corporate crime is not as common place as regular felony, you’re right, my statement might have been better phrased. The point I was trying to make is the percentage of convicted felons getting jail time ought to be close to the percentage of companies (i.e. their executives) guilty of egregious violations and abuses getting jail time.
- himom 8y ago
  Q: America has minor drug users incarcerated for life, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, save Seychelles. How many Wall St. bankers, corrupt DC lobbyists or public officials are in jail for their crimes? A: very few, just to make an ostensible show of a statement now and then to mollify the people during tough times. The bigger the crime, the lesser the time.
  - frockington 8y ago
    Audi/VW/Porsche are not American companies