5 ms·

> Esformes made off with at least $37 million for himself from 1998 to 2016, according to prosecutors, using the money to finance a lavish lifestyle of fancy ca

> Esformes made off with at least $37 million for himself from 1998 to 2016, according to prosecutors, using the money to finance a lavish lifestyle of fancy cars and a $360,000 watch. 18 years this went on?? This is what surprised me the most.

mikeash 8y ago
There’s little motivation for law enforcement to search for white collar crime, and little support for prosecuting it. Look at the indictments produced by the Mueller investigation. Politics aside, some of those people were doing real shady shit for years, and they would have gotten away with it cleanly had they not gotten entangled with the campaign.
- pm90 8y ago
  Counter-argument: none of the shady shit they'd done had enough of an effect to interest law enforcement, right until they got control of the Presidency. It seems to make sense to me now. All the fear mongering over immigrants and drugs flooding across the border when an American company (Purdue Pharma) engineered the worst actual drug epidemic in generations makes me wonder about the effectiveness of spending literally billions on the "War on Drugs" while not addressing the real issues.
  - mikeash 8y ago
    I don’t think that’s a counter argument, just a specific example of what I said in my first paragraph.
    - pm90 8y ago
      What you say in your first paragraph: > There’s little motivation for law enforcement to search for white collar crime, and little support for prosecuting it. How is what I said a specific example of this?
      - mikeash 8y ago
        Law enforcement wasn’t interested in their shady shit before, because they weren’t motivated to look for it, and if they had found it, it probably wouldn’t have been prosecuted anyway.
  - freen 8y ago
    The IRS audits low/middle income folks overwhelmingly more than rich folks. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/3/18292741/irs-tax-audit-eitc-black-belt https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/3/18292741/irs-tax... I doubt it’s because of either the magnitude or harm caused, more like the ease of prosecution.
- segmondy 8y ago
  law enforcement doesn't search for unreported crimes period. Some white collar crimes are reported such as when someone uses your credit card or steals your identity. Crimes such as bribery are not reported, they merely stumble across it. The reality scandal is tip of the iceberg, there's so much bribery and corruption going on in life that never get reported.
  - mikeash 8y ago
    Law enforcement searches for unreported crimes all the time! They just only do it for crimes they are motivated to find and which they know will get prosecuted, like traffic or drug offenses.

mikeash 8y ago

There’s little motivation for law enforcement to search for white collar crime, and little support for prosecuting it. Look at the indictments produced by the Mueller investigation. Politics aside, some of those people were doing real shady shit for years, and they would have gotten away with it cleanly had they not gotten entangled with the campaign.

pm90 8y ago
Counter-argument: none of the shady shit they'd done had enough of an effect to interest law enforcement, right until they got control of the Presidency. It seems to make sense to me now. All the fear mongering over immigrants and drugs flooding across the border when an American company (Purdue Pharma) engineered the worst actual drug epidemic in generations makes me wonder about the effectiveness of spending literally billions on the "War on Drugs" while not addressing the real issues.
- mikeash 8y ago
  I don’t think that’s a counter argument, just a specific example of what I said in my first paragraph.
  - pm90 8y ago
    What you say in your first paragraph: > There’s little motivation for law enforcement to search for white collar crime, and little support for prosecuting it. How is what I said a specific example of this?
    - mikeash 8y ago
      Law enforcement wasn’t interested in their shady shit before, because they weren’t motivated to look for it, and if they had found it, it probably wouldn’t have been prosecuted anyway.
- freen 8y ago
  The IRS audits low/middle income folks overwhelmingly more than rich folks. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/3/18292741/irs-tax-audit-eitc-black-belt https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/3/18292741/irs-tax... I doubt it’s because of either the magnitude or harm caused, more like the ease of prosecution.
segmondy 8y ago
law enforcement doesn't search for unreported crimes period. Some white collar crimes are reported such as when someone uses your credit card or steals your identity. Crimes such as bribery are not reported, they merely stumble across it. The reality scandal is tip of the iceberg, there's so much bribery and corruption going on in life that never get reported.
- mikeash 8y ago
  Law enforcement searches for unreported crimes all the time! They just only do it for crimes they are motivated to find and which they know will get prosecuted, like traffic or drug offenses.