5 ms·

Well, I'll be losing sleep hoping Netflix can make it through this tough time. Seriously, is there one person alive who believes the guy should get seven years

Well, I'll be losing sleep hoping Netflix can make it through this tough time. Seriously, is there one person alive who believes the guy should get seven years in prison? Fire him, do your character assassination thing, but prison time? Why are our tax dollars being used to defend a multi-billion dollar corporation? Let Netflix run its own company. Change compensation structure or something to reduce corruption. Douche or not, this is not behavior worthy of jail time.

xyzzyz 5y ago
There are in fact plenty of people who believe that people shouldn’t be able to get away with white collar crime to the tune of millions of dollars with a slap on the wrist, when petty criminals get much worse sentences for more minor trespasses.
- Phillip98798 5y ago
  Sure, there's Bernie Madoff stuff, and then there's this. Are you comfortable with big corporations and government hegemony muscling employees into compliance? I'm not. The guy should undoubtedly be sued, but it feels wrong to create an equivalency here with violent offenders.
  - xyzzyz 5y ago
    This guy defrauded the company to the tune of millions of dollars. I am perfectly comfortable with big corporations and governments muscling people into compliance, where thing to comply with is “not stealing from the company”. Imagine you run a business, and your employee just steals one of the company vehicles. Do you think you should have any recourse beyond firing them? I mean, it’s only a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of loss to you, so if you don’t want the government to go after the guy that stole millions from Netflix, why expect the government to help you recover some paltry car? It’s not violent offense after all, just property. As it happens, fraud is a crime, and government prosecutes crime to deter it. This is perfectly reasonable, and how things have always worked.
    - Phillip98798 5y ago
      I think that's a bit of a false equivalency. The guy incorporated a domestic LLC, which unless he's a total moron, I assume the guy just thought that this is how business is conducted, and the US government would be okay to know about it. I don't believe any small business employee is going to incorporate an "I Steal Trucks LLC." The American public gets defrauded by corporations daily. I seldom see white knights in the government volunteering to prosecute them on our behalf.
      - xyzzyz 5y ago
        His LLC had nothing to do with how they caught his fraud, or his culpability. I don’t get the point you’re trying to get across with “I Steal Trucks LLC”. > The American public gets defrauded by corporations daily. I seldom see white knights in the government volunteering to prosecute them on our behalf. Then you are not paying attention.
ludocode 5y ago
I absolutely believe he should go to prison. If a fine is the only punishment for a crime, then that law only exists for the lower classes. The only way to punish a rich person and deter other rich people from crime is to take away their freedom.
- philwelch 5y ago
  This isn't necessarily true in the general case, let alone in this specific case. In the general case, some countries calculate fines according to the criminal's income for this very reason. In this specific case, fines or, in the case of a civil lawsuit, damages in excess of the amount of money the person illegitimately gained would be sufficient.
  - ludocode 5y ago
    Fines as a percentage of income do not solve the problem. If I'm a poor person living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over for savings, a 5% fine would be devastating. If I'm a rich person living off of (debt secured by) my investments, a 5% fine, even if it's hundreds of thousands of dollars, is pocket change compared to my true income and wealth. A fine is obviously not sufficient given how widespread this practice is. If the fine is double what you gained but you are less than 50% likely to get caught, logic dictates you should commit the crime. Again, prison is the only deterrent that works on the rich.
    - philwelch 5y ago
      Follow-up point I forgot to add: > If the fine is double what you gained but you are less than 50% likely to get caught, logic dictates you should commit the crime. It turns out that people’s decisions whether or not to break the law have very little to do with any rational economic calculation about the probability of being caught. Consider how shoplifting is basically not enforced in San Francisco anymore. People just steal things from the store in broad daylight and nobody bothers even trying to stop them. Sure, this does result in a lot of shoplifting, but the question is, why does anyone bother paying when they could just brazenly take their desired merchandise out the door with no risk of ever facing any consequences?

xyzzyz 5y ago

There are in fact plenty of people who believe that people shouldn’t be able to get away with white collar crime to the tune of millions of dollars with a slap on the wrist, when petty criminals get much worse sentences for more minor trespasses.

Phillip98798 5y ago
Sure, there's Bernie Madoff stuff, and then there's this. Are you comfortable with big corporations and government hegemony muscling employees into compliance? I'm not. The guy should undoubtedly be sued, but it feels wrong to create an equivalency here with violent offenders.
- xyzzyz 5y ago
  This guy defrauded the company to the tune of millions of dollars. I am perfectly comfortable with big corporations and governments muscling people into compliance, where thing to comply with is “not stealing from the company”. Imagine you run a business, and your employee just steals one of the company vehicles. Do you think you should have any recourse beyond firing them? I mean, it’s only a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of loss to you, so if you don’t want the government to go after the guy that stole millions from Netflix, why expect the government to help you recover some paltry car? It’s not violent offense after all, just property. As it happens, fraud is a crime, and government prosecutes crime to deter it. This is perfectly reasonable, and how things have always worked.
  - Phillip98798 5y ago
    I think that's a bit of a false equivalency. The guy incorporated a domestic LLC, which unless he's a total moron, I assume the guy just thought that this is how business is conducted, and the US government would be okay to know about it. I don't believe any small business employee is going to incorporate an "I Steal Trucks LLC." The American public gets defrauded by corporations daily. I seldom see white knights in the government volunteering to prosecute them on our behalf.
    - xyzzyz 5y ago
      His LLC had nothing to do with how they caught his fraud, or his culpability. I don’t get the point you’re trying to get across with “I Steal Trucks LLC”. > The American public gets defrauded by corporations daily. I seldom see white knights in the government volunteering to prosecute them on our behalf. Then you are not paying attention.

ludocode 5y ago

I absolutely believe he should go to prison. If a fine is the only punishment for a crime, then that law only exists for the lower classes. The only way to punish a rich person and deter other rich people from crime is to take away their freedom.

philwelch 5y ago
This isn't necessarily true in the general case, let alone in this specific case. In the general case, some countries calculate fines according to the criminal's income for this very reason. In this specific case, fines or, in the case of a civil lawsuit, damages in excess of the amount of money the person illegitimately gained would be sufficient.
- ludocode 5y ago
  Fines as a percentage of income do not solve the problem. If I'm a poor person living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over for savings, a 5% fine would be devastating. If I'm a rich person living off of (debt secured by) my investments, a 5% fine, even if it's hundreds of thousands of dollars, is pocket change compared to my true income and wealth. A fine is obviously not sufficient given how widespread this practice is. If the fine is double what you gained but you are less than 50% likely to get caught, logic dictates you should commit the crime. Again, prison is the only deterrent that works on the rich.
  - philwelch 5y ago
    Follow-up point I forgot to add: > If the fine is double what you gained but you are less than 50% likely to get caught, logic dictates you should commit the crime. It turns out that people’s decisions whether or not to break the law have very little to do with any rational economic calculation about the probability of being caught. Consider how shoplifting is basically not enforced in San Francisco anymore. People just steal things from the store in broad daylight and nobody bothers even trying to stop them. Sure, this does result in a lot of shoplifting, but the question is, why does anyone bother paying when they could just brazenly take their desired merchandise out the door with no risk of ever facing any consequences?