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I just hope we don't find out that the only reason the FBI got involved in this case is that Mark Cuban or another rich person called them in. The FBI is in dan
by staunch 13y ago
I just hope we don't find out that the only reason the FBI got involved in this case is that Mark Cuban or another rich person called them in. The FBI is in danger of becoming the enforcers of the rich and powerful. They already act as Goldman Sach's volunteer corporate security dept: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-programmer http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-gol...
- the_watcher 13y agoWait, you'd be fine with it if someone else called them in? Or you don't think the FBI should be available to anyone to report people like this? Just because someone is rich doesn't mean they lose police protection.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- staunch 13y agoThe FBI should not give special treatment to the rich or powerful. If you or I had called the FBI I suspect we'd have been told to file a civil action or contact the local police.
- sanswork 13y agoIf you or I had called the FBI in the matter of $100s of thousands of dollars being fraudulently obtained we certainly wouldn't be redirected to the local police. Check section 7 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate
- hristov 13y agoDon't know about that. It is really not in Mark Cuban's interest for this to be in the news. At best it makes him look gullible.
- adventured 13y agoIn the prior TechCrunch write-up, it was indicated in private correspondence that Cuban preferred to not go to the police to deal with the situation. So there went that straw man.
- staunch 13y agoThe only strawman here is the one you just created to shoot down. I'm not claiming to know what happened. I'm just pointing out a potentially suspicious aspect of this otherwise incredibly mundane story.
- testrun 13y agoThis is fascinating. So because you are ignorant of what happened, that gives you the license to make up a story because it is potentially suspect?
- staunch 13y agoSupposedly Mark Cuban asked another investor to hold off on contacting the police while he personally investigated. Later, at some point, someone contacted the FBI. That's all we know. When the FBI takes on a completely trivial case and the victim is a billionaire I get suspicious. That is all I have said and all I believe.
- tptacek 13y agoI just won a bet! Thanks! As predicted, the top post on an HN thread about the FBI arresting the fraudster behind Motionloft found a way to criticize law enforcement; here, because even though Motionloft seems self-evidently to be an enormous fraud, enforcement of the laws against fraud are merely a tool of the rich.
- cleaver 13y agoMoustaches are twirling as we speak...
- lawnchair_larry 13y agoBe careful, you just claimed that Motionloft is an enormous fraud. That's not what has been established here.
- tptacek 13y agoSorry, you're right.
- danielweber 13y agoIf you mean that he should have said Mills seems to be an enormous fraud, then yes. Which meets his larger point that of course the FBI should have called in, because there was still enormous fraud going on.
- staunch 13y agoThis fraud is "enormous" only compared with a bartender stealing cash out of a till. It is infinitesimally small in terms of what occurs on a very regular basis.
- mcantelon 13y agoFolks are used to the FBI taking little interest in things like MG Global allowing $1.6B of customer money to disappear.
- mpyne 13y ago