How do white collar criminals have more to lose? Liquor store robbers lose their freedom but white collar criminals gain a luxurious lifestyle for the rest of their life. Sounds like a big loss.

Can't believe I'm answering this but seriously?

Seriously. I'd rather lose my job at a bank and retire with a few million in the bank than be poor and sit in prison.

it's semantics. You were poor in the first place in your second example so you didn't lose anything. I don't see how Max quantifies the freedom interest in the calculation though against losing "more" in the form of wealth. Seems like he's approaching punishment strictly from a deterrence perspective.

I'm drunk so lets go. That doesn't absolutely sound preposterous to yuo?

I think he's assuming all white collar criminals get away with it, which of course they don't.

Sure, there is a very small amount of small fish that get imprisoned. But there have been several examples of people being allowed to settle for a small percentage of their profits. How many of the big white collar criminals go to jail for a serious amount of time? A very, very, small minority.

If they're allowed to keep their wealth it's especially ridiculous.

See Milken, Cuattrone, etc

I doubt that's true. The big/famous guys get off more often because they have some really good lawyers, and of course you are going to hear a lot more about the ones who get undersentenced than you are about the ones who get more appropriate sentences.

And Milken, for example, got a reduced sentence for cooperating with authorities.

And remained a billionaire

Why do you care so much? I would think people would be happy that someone stole money from rich banks!

I think it's pretty likely he goes to jail. Who are all these bankers who have done much worse?

He stole money from 1000s of small account holders...
This was just another futures broker...
Everyone took a 40% haircut on the losses.

If he is not on trial by November 2012...
Then he should be sharing a cell with Eric Holder by 2013.

it is pretty evident that a good % of white collar crimes do not have sufficient punishment. some of these guys have ruined lives/companies/cities etc etc .. the list is very long of those that have fleeced people and all they got was a fine and a slap on the wrist.

I know this one guy, who for years operated a bucket shop in the financial district, him and his associates made hand over fist money for over a decade (2 mill plus a year), in the end , when he got caught , he served 6 months and payed 500k in fines

I have multiple childhood friends who have been doing/did 5 to 10 because they were carrying/selling crack , or had a gun on them .


Example A completely wiped out hundreds of families retirement accounts , example B sold drugs and/or had to carry a gun because of conflicts. To me, example a should have done more time.


Mozilo, Boesky, AIG , Bank of america with their illegal overdraft fees then settling for 10% of it, fannie mae , enron etc etc etc .

there is rarely an instance (madoff), where there is a punishment somewhat befitting the crime, and even that is laughable as trained money managers and people in the know, should know no one achieves almost perfectly sloped returns.

it is pretty evident that a good % of white collar crimes do not have sufficient punishment. some of these guys have ruined lives/companies/cities etc etc .. the list is very long of those that have fleeced people and all they got was a fine and a slap on the wrist.

I know this one guy, who for years operated a bucket shop in the financial district, him and his associates made hand over fist money for over a decade (2 mill plus a year), in the end , when he got caught , he served 6 months and payed 500k in fines

I have multiple childhood friends who have been doing/did 5 to 10 because they were carrying/selling crack , or had a gun on them .


Example A completely wiped out hundreds of families retirement accounts , example B sold drugs and/or had to carry a gun because of conflicts. To me, example a should have done more time.


Mozilo, Boesky, AIG , Bank of america with their illegal overdraft fees then settling for 10% of it, fannie mae , enron etc etc etc .

there is rarely an instance (madoff), where there is a punishment somewhat befitting the crime, and even that is laughable as trained money managers and people in the know, should know no one achieves almost perfectly sloped returns.