4 ms·

Madoff admitted to his crimes so it was easy to arrest him right away. Ken Lay, who did not admit to crimes, took 3 years to be indicted and then was convicted

by RC_ITR 4y ago

Madoff admitted to his crimes so it was easy to arrest him right away. Ken Lay, who did not admit to crimes, took 3 years to be indicted and then was convicted.

fmajid 4y ago
And IIRC then died before penalties could be assessed so his widow got all of his ill-gotten gains scot-free.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  So $2.5 million isn't nothing (not by a long shot), but 'scot-free' is probably not a fair characterization, especially considering she has a conservator monitoring all her purchases now (to make sure she's not hiding cash).[1] Plus her sons, who actually turned their dad in: one killed himself over this, and the other died of lymphoma (won't comment on psychological stress, but you have to imagine the fallout from the scandal didn't help). [1]https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/06/ruth_madoff_must_make_do_on_12.html https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/06/ruth_madoff_...
  - fmajid 4y ago
    I was talking about Ken Lay, not Madoff. Sorry if that was unclear.
tiahura 4y ago
No he wasn't. He died before the appeal was finished so the conviction was vacated.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  What I love about Hacker News is that a person can be convicted of a crime, die while still convicted of that crime, but then have the conviction thrown out after they have left this mortal plane and someone will still be like "Ummm actually he was never convicted of any crimes" I guess I'm glad that Alan Turing was never convicted of 'Gross Indecency' then! Makes the UK look a lot more progressive!
- tzs 4y ago
  For those curious how that works see [1]. How common is this? I don’t recall ever hearing about it, even though I went to law school. I don’t know if I just forgot about or it just never came up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatement_ab_initio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatement_ab_initio

by RC_ITR 4y ago

Madoff admitted to his crimes so it was easy to arrest him right away. Ken Lay, who did not admit to crimes, took 3 years to be indicted and then was convicted.

fmajid 4y ago

And IIRC then died before penalties could be assessed so his widow got all of his ill-gotten gains scot-free.

RC_ITR 4y ago
So $2.5 million isn't nothing (not by a long shot), but 'scot-free' is probably not a fair characterization, especially considering she has a conservator monitoring all her purchases now (to make sure she's not hiding cash).[1] Plus her sons, who actually turned their dad in: one killed himself over this, and the other died of lymphoma (won't comment on psychological stress, but you have to imagine the fallout from the scandal didn't help). [1]https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/06/ruth_madoff_must_make_do_on_12.html https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/06/ruth_madoff_...
- fmajid 4y ago
  I was talking about Ken Lay, not Madoff. Sorry if that was unclear.

tiahura 4y ago

No he wasn't. He died before the appeal was finished so the conviction was vacated.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
RC_ITR 4y ago
What I love about Hacker News is that a person can be convicted of a crime, die while still convicted of that crime, but then have the conviction thrown out after they have left this mortal plane and someone will still be like "Ummm actually he was never convicted of any crimes" I guess I'm glad that Alan Turing was never convicted of 'Gross Indecency' then! Makes the UK look a lot more progressive!
tzs 4y ago
For those curious how that works see [1]. How common is this? I don’t recall ever hearing about it, even though I went to law school. I don’t know if I just forgot about or it just never came up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatement_ab_initio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abatement_ab_initio