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Microsoft engineer stole $10M by selling Xbox gift cards for Bitcoin

25 points by guiambros 5y ago

chrisco255 5y ago
> stole $10 million > Has to pay $8.7 million in restitution > 9 year sentence If he holds the BTC, and waits until after his jail sentence to pay the restitution, and Bitcoin goes up 10x while he's in jail, I guess he pockets all the profit?
- Hydraulix989 5y ago
  If Bitcoin goes down 10x while he's in jail, he's unable to pay and back in jail again.
  - chrisco255 5y ago
    Haha, thankfully debtor prison ended many moons ago and double jeopardy is protected against. There are limits to collection of such penalties.
    - Hydraulix989 5y ago
      > debtor prison ended many moons ago Right, this would look more like "unwilling to pay" than "unable to pay" -- the former is not considered "debt". There's quite a bit of leeway here, and generally court-ordered fines that can't be paid because "suddenly the money is gone" err towards the former instead of the latter, especially payment was intentionally delayed as OP described. > double jeopardy is protected against That would be a probation violation (which typical entails additional jail time, which would be already baked into the same initial "sentence"), not a re-trial.
- eloff 5y ago
  Why would he be able to wait until after his sentence?
tjs8rj 5y ago
9 years in prison? For stealing $10m from a trillion dollar corp - 87% of which will be paid back? That’s 15%+ of this bloke’s existence, not to mention the damage to family and career - for $1.3m out of the pocket of one of the biggest companies in the world. He broke the law, he deserves consequences for those actions, but ruining his life doesn’t seem reasonable at all. Have him pay it back, maybe 1 year in jail.
- hulitu 5y ago
  "BEN: Now, take my case. They hung me up here five years ago. Every night, they take me down for twenty minutes, then they hang me up again, which I regard as very fair, in view of what I done, and, if nothing else, it's taught me to respect the Romans, and it's taught me... that you'll never get anywhere in this life, unless you're prepared to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay! " Monty Python From my point of view the purpose of the American "justice" system is to teach some criminals a lesson.

25 points by guiambros 5y ago

> stole $10 million > Has to pay $8.7 million in restitution > 9 year sentence If he holds the BTC, and waits until after his jail sentence to pay the restitution, and Bitcoin goes up 10x while he's in jail, I guess he pockets all the profit?

Hydraulix989 5y ago
If Bitcoin goes down 10x while he's in jail, he's unable to pay and back in jail again.
- chrisco255 5y ago
  Haha, thankfully debtor prison ended many moons ago and double jeopardy is protected against. There are limits to collection of such penalties.
  - Hydraulix989 5y ago
    > debtor prison ended many moons ago Right, this would look more like "unwilling to pay" than "unable to pay" -- the former is not considered "debt". There's quite a bit of leeway here, and generally court-ordered fines that can't be paid because "suddenly the money is gone" err towards the former instead of the latter, especially payment was intentionally delayed as OP described. > double jeopardy is protected against That would be a probation violation (which typical entails additional jail time, which would be already baked into the same initial "sentence"), not a re-trial.
eloff 5y ago
Why would he be able to wait until after his sentence?

tjs8rj 5y ago

9 years in prison? For stealing $10m from a trillion dollar corp - 87% of which will be paid back? That’s 15%+ of this bloke’s existence, not to mention the damage to family and career - for $1.3m out of the pocket of one of the biggest companies in the world. He broke the law, he deserves consequences for those actions, but ruining his life doesn’t seem reasonable at all. Have him pay it back, maybe 1 year in jail.

hulitu 5y ago
"BEN: Now, take my case. They hung me up here five years ago. Every night, they take me down for twenty minutes, then they hang me up again, which I regard as very fair, in view of what I done, and, if nothing else, it's taught me to respect the Romans, and it's taught me... that you'll never get anywhere in this life, unless you're prepared to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay! " Monty Python From my point of view the purpose of the American "justice" system is to teach some criminals a lesson.