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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI just read the Shkreli indictment from beginning to end. He is so fucked.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2648565-123111423847.htmlThese are not technical violations. It's not stuff that is open to interpretation. It's outright lies, captured in emails. Telling the SEC one thing and investors something completely different. Saying you're going to take a 1% management fee and helping yourself to vast multiples of that, because you can. Blatantly inventing sham consulting contracts to disguise payments to investors. I have no idea what the hell his lawyer can do to help him. There's nobody higher up for him to offer testimony against. And given his public image any threat to go to a jury trial is laughable. Especially since the charges are straightforward enough for any jury to easily understand.
I'm certain he'll go to prison for many years.
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MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I doubt he'll do more than five in a Club Fed.
comradebillyboy
(10,955 posts)
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)The first is that white-collar prisons are filled with, well, white-collar prisoners. At Cumberland, the majority of inmates were drug dealers whose sentences were less than 10 years. “At least while I was there,” says Abramoff, “about 90 percent of the drug dealers were inner-city drug dealers, and some of them were violent folks.” Those who were true “white-collar” criminals were few and far between.
The second great myth is that the famous guys get better treatment. In fact, the more “high profile” you are—unlike in the non-prison world—the fewer perks you may receive. No one wants to be accused of favoritism. This encompasses all sorts of things, from which facility you’re sent to—though there were several minimum-security prisons within a hour’s drive of Kerik’s home in New Jersey, he was shipped to western Maryland, where his wife and kids had to travel 10 hours round-trip to see him—to what happens when a loved one dies. Abramoff’s mother passed away while he was incarcerated “and almost everything I asked for the answer was no. You’re supposed to get a deathbed visit, and I asked for that and the answer was no. Then I wasn’t allowed to go to her funeral.”
......
“The punishment should be the deprivation of freedom and liberty,” he says. “But once you arrive at prison—I was shocked by the psychological punishment.” This is unexpected. “You are constantly berated, degraded, demoralized,” he says. “You’re herded like cattle.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/white-collar-prisons-2013-12
Egnever
(21,506 posts)You aren't suggesting we should take Abramoffs word for this stuff are you?
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Even minimum security is no picnic these days. It's certainly not like a country club.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)Look at the footage especially when they show outside. Sure you are still subjected to searches and told when and where you have to be but compared to actual prison it is a summer camp.
I was convicted of a white collar crime and spent two years at FPC Montgomery. I've never been to a higher security institution. I've never been through transit or a county jail. I was allowed to self surrender at the prison camp. It was a lot different then I though it would be. The only thing I ever knew about prison was what I saw on TV. I expected to have to depend myself constantly but it was nothing like that. Everyone there knew, any type of bad behavior would get you sent to the county jail or to a higher security level - inmates like to call it "behind the fence".
I remember searching the web before I went in and very little information about daily life was available. I've started a blog about what life inside was like. Check it out at prisonexperts.com
prisonexperts.com
Divernan
(15,480 posts)I looked up this info I posted on Du last January. The topic then under discussion was ex-governor Arch Moore of West Virginia. When he pled out to various criminal corruption charges, the NYT noted he faced up to 36 years in prison. "His sentence could be as much as 36 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines." Moore served only two years and eight months in federal prison in Alabama and Kentucky and four months of home confinement at his home in Glen Dale, Marshall County.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/13/us/ex-west-virginia-governor-admits-corruption-schemes.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_A._Moore,_Jr.
Granted, my visit to Maxwell was a long time ago, but as recently as 2014, Jesse Jackson, Jr. did time there and took advantage of a drug and alcohol rehab program, completion of which automatically reduced a prisoner's sentence by 6 months. FPC was ranked # 3 by Forbes as in its list of posh prisons
Former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. will learn whether and for how long he could go to prison Wednesday — but he’s already shown a preference for some of the nation’s poshest pens. The one-time lawmaker from Illinois pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 to raiding $750,000 from his campaign fund to make a slew of personal purchases, including a $43,000 Rolex, vacations and other luxury items. He and his wife are due to be sentenced in a Washington district court on Wednesday.
In preparation for his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Jackson’s attorneys named their client’s first choices for where to spend time behind bars: the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Ala., or the Federal Correctional Institution Butner, in North Carolina. By chance or design, both of the prisons named by attorneys for the one-time lawmaker on Monday made a 2009 Forbes list of the nation’s “cushiest prisons.” “FPC Montgomery is the closest FPC to Washington, D.C.,” Jackson’s attorneys wrote in their formal request, “and would, as such, allow Mr. Jackson to maintain contact with his wife and children during incarceration.”
Of course, there's nothing new about convicted, formerly respectable members of society seeking out a cot in Club Fed. Ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff spent 43 months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md., and former congressman Randy Cunningham spent time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Tucson after accepting $2.4 million in defense contractor bribes.
And while neither of the two prisons named by Jackson's attorneys would match the high-flying lifestyle he maintained when he was mooching off campaign cash (including the purchase of a $1,500 cashmere cape, according to court filings), Jackson wouldn't be breaking rocks in the prison yard either. Montgomery is an "excellent facility," said defense attorney and federal prisons expert Alan Ellis, and Butner is "an attractive place; well-run, well-managed."
At Montgomery, he could take an apprenticeship course in horticulture or train as a landscaper. At Butner, Jackson could get prison-yard stock tips from white collar crook Bernie Madoff, or prisoner 61727-054, as he’s known at the medium-security facility he inhabits at the complex.
Here's more on Jackson's top prison picks:
Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Ala. Federal Bureau of Prisons
[
div class="excerpt"]FPC Montgomery:
2009 Forbes ranking: 3
Located about 90 miles from Birmingham, Ala., FPC Montgomery sits on the grounds of the Maxwell Air Force Base, which houses about 12,500 military and civilian personnel. The camp is on the grounds of the facility “to provide manpower for the general maintenance of the Air Force Base,” according to the prison’s orientation handbook, and inmates jobs include work as bakers, landscapers, and librarians.
Spending the day on a base like Maxwell can have unexpected perks. Ellis said he had a client at FPC Montgomery who was tasked with mowing the base general's lawn, a job that could be sweaty work in the Alabama summer. "The general's wife would invite the client in for lemonade and cookies," Ellis said.
No luxury outlets or high-priced goodies here: A jar of pickle relish from the prison commissary costs $1.95; Gillette aftershave goes for $3.90.
Inmates don’t have to listen to their cell-mates’ choice of music if they don’t want to: Use of radios without headphones is prohibited, according to the prison’s handbook.
Former notable inmates include Charles Colson, a special counsel to President Richard Nixon who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
Finally(!), here's what I experienced on my visit to Maxwell.
I "met" Gov. Moore at his Club Fed prison at Maxwell Air Force Base.
I visited the prison to take the deposition of another white collar convict for a civil trial which proceeded out of the criminal case for which he was doing time. As a guard escorted me down the well-manicured path to the "cottage" in which I took the deposition, we passed a prisoner who avoided eye contact. The guard told me it was Gov. Arch Moore. I referred to that on DU back in 2006, when discussing the posh Club Feds for white collar criminals as per Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1287287
"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
No hard time for them; they'll get sent to a Club Fed
There are several federal prisons known as Club Feds, where white collar criminals play bridge and tennis and have the run of well-manicured grounds with cozy cottage type buildings. I visited one at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama to take the deposition of a convicted felon/ex major law firm partner, whose grandfather had been editor of Harvard Law Review. He had a different self-help group meeting to attend nearly every night. There was gamblers anonymous, alcoholics anonymous, etc. His bridge partner was former West Virginia governor, Arch Moore. No longer there was John Mitchell, convicted while Attorney General of the U.S., and sentenced to 19 months at Maxwell. I understand now they have a health spa. A more recent resident at a Florida Club Fed is a Baltimore Ravens football player convicted on a drug charge. The mix at these prisons is about 30% white collar criminals and 70% drug offenders. Here are two links. I'm having trouble getting the first one, to the St. Petersburg Times to work, but if you google "Maxwell Air Force Base" and "Club Fed", you can get it.
www.sptimes.com/2005/05/07/Hillsborough/_Club_Fed_or_re...
'Club Fed' or real hard time?
Three convicted in a Tampa housing scheme will spend time in federal prisons.
By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published May 7, 2005
Chester M. Luney, the former executive director at the Tampa Hillsborough Action Plan who also was convicted in the bribery trial, also has reported to prison. Luney, 60, arrived at the Federal Prison Camp at Montgomery, Ala., on April 29 to begin serving a two-year, nine-month sentence. An Air Force veteran who also worked as an $80,279-a-year Veterans Affairs psychologist, Luney requested the Montgomery facility, which is on the grounds of Maxwell Air Force Base.
The prison camps in Pensacola and Montgomery are classified as minimum-security facilities. They are without walls or gun towers, and house a mix of inmates, about 70 percent drug offenders and 30 percent white-collar criminals.
The Baltimore Ravens' $5.8-million-a-year running back Jamal Lewis began serving a four-month sentence at the Pensacola prison in February on charges arising from his use of a cell phone to set up a cocaine deal.
Joe Paulus, a former Wisconsin district attorney who pleaded guilty to taking bribes in 22 cases he prosecuted in Winnebago County, is serving a 58-month sentence there.
At both prisons, inmates take weekends off. After daily work details wrap up, they may watch TV or use recreational facilities. At Montgomery, that includes softball fields, basketball courts, pool tables, weight rooms, a library and a room for playing acoustical musical instruments.
Inmates must wear institutional green pants and numbered shirts and work boots. They share communal toilets and showers. Their three meals a day consist of food that costs the government $2.60 a day per inmate.
Javaman
(65,710 posts)and if this is NYC (not sure where he was arrested), he'll be spending sometime in the tombs.
while they aren't as bad as they once were, the tombs still suck.
once upon a time, in a very misspent youth a long time ago, I had friends that spend time there and also at Rikers Island.
two places you really didn't want to go.
I visited them my friends at those places and just those visits "scared me straight".
so where ever he eventually ends up, he will get a very nice dose of reality before where ever he winds up.
Ace Rothstein
(3,373 posts)
Atman
(31,464 posts)Does he have to be sent to a dungeon and flogged daily? Hung up on the wall like a character in a Monty Python sketch? What is YOUR life worth? How bad does it have to be to be "bad?" He was a free man who fucked people over and he is no longer a free man. No one is serving him Chateaubriand and Cognac as he falls to sleep to the sound of the symphony. HE'S BEING IMPRISONED. GOOD. Great! AWESOME.
Think of your daily life, no matter how mundane, how awesome, how spectacular, how boring...it's YOUR life. Come and go as you please. Now imagine being in prison. ANY prison.
It sounds as if some of you won't be happy unless he is raped and beaten.
Think of the freedom you enjoy, even if your life isn't perfect. Now think of a douche bag like this guy, used to living in luxury, being locked in a small concrete cell for 20 hours a day. Maybe you think this is "cushy," but I'm just happy he's being locked up.
iandhr
(6,852 posts)
liberalhistorian
(20,904 posts)I cannot stand the SOB and I'm thrilled beyond words to see his arrest for what does, indeed, appear to be some really solid charges that show just what an SOB he is. But that doesn't mean I'd want to see him, or any prisoner at all, I don't care who they are, raped, beaten, mistreated, etc. Any kind of prison is punishment enough, even if the conditions are fairly decent or even cushy, precisely because it's PRISON where you no longer have the freedom to make even the most simple choices, choices we take for granted every day. Any loss of freedom is truly punishment, especially for rich fucks like this who are accustomed to being able to do what they want when they want and having all the time and money in the world to do it.
Tommy_Carcetti
(44,497 posts)La Catedral was a prison overlooking the city of Medellín in Colombia. The prison was built to specifications ordered by Medellín Cartel leader Pablo Escobar, under a 1991 agreement with the Colombian government, in which Escobar would surrender to authorities, serve a maximum term of five years, and the Colombian government would not extradite him to the United States. In addition to the facility being built to Escobar's specifications, he was also given the right to choose who would guard him, believing to have chosen guards only loyal to him. The prison was believed to be designed more to keep out Escobar's enemies from assassination attempts, than to keep Escobar in.[1][2]
The finished prison was often called "Hotel Escobar," or "Club Medellín," because of its amenities. La Catedral featured a soccer field, a giant doll house, a bar, jacuzzi, and a waterfall. Escobar also had a telescope installed that allowed him to look down onto the city of Medellín to his daughter's residence while talking on the phone with her.[1][2]
Sorry. Just got off a Narcos kick.
rug
(82,333 posts)
arthritisR_US
(7,810 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)
The Velveteen Ocelot
(130,516 posts)Shkreli will probably wind up in one of those minimum-seurity prison camps instead of Leavenworth but it's still prison. Good.
comradebillyboy
(10,955 posts)cheated his rich investors
monmouth4
(10,711 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)A lot of "regular" folks make decisions without doing a lot of research, unlike the rich ones. Shkreli was known for driving down prices and people followed his "tweets" as gospel. He also did the reverse; pumping a stock in public while shorting it in reality. He's hurt a lot of people and cost companies a LOT of money having to fight off his bogus "petitions" and "filings". I think what finally got him was how public he was with his arrogant attitude and in some cases actually DARING anyone to do anything about him. The former company he started is also suing him for 65 million. Hopefully he gets a long jail term and a huge fine and also loses his right to ever trade or start another public company
I also hope he gets the shit beat out of him
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Response to Liberal_in_LA (Reply #6)
Post removed
agent46
(1,262 posts)I didn't know they were prosecuting investment fraud these days.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)In my own district, the Eastern District of California, we took action in a number of investment fraud prosecutions in recent months. In August, Gary Bradford of Sacramento pleaded guilty to defrauding people who put $2.2 million into his investment clubs, and in another case Luis Fernandez of Folsom was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for defrauding over 50 investors of $2 million. In September, four Sacramento men were charged with defrauding 180 members of the investment clubs they managed, causing losses of approximately $26 million. That same month, in three other cases, a Folsom man was charged with a securities fraud scheme that cost investors over $6.5 million, a Visalia man was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for selling fraudulent real estate investment trusts, with $2 million in losses to victims, and a Fresno man was charged with defrauding investors of nearly $3 million. Last month, Collins Christensen, a Sacramento businessman, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors of nearly $1 million.
The Ponzi schemes and similar investment frauds that have recently been prosecuted in the Eastern District of California and in many other districts are smaller in scope that Madoff's massive scheme, of course, but are no less devastating to their victims. In fact, because many of the victims of these smaller frauds are middle class investors who can ill afford to lose their savings, the direct and personal impact of these crimes on the victims can be greater than those in larger cases involving wealthy or institutional investors. In many investment fraud cases, victim investors are seduced into turning over their life savings, their college tuition funds, their retirement accounts, and even refinancing their homes in order to turn the equity over to the fraudsters. These victims tell heart-rending stories of financial ruin: college plans cancelled, dreams of retirement extinguished, the loss of a home that had been in the family for generations. Some elderly victims lose the funds they need to pay for critical health care in their declining years. The effects of these crimes are far reaching, often plunging victims into poverty, destroying marriages, and causing deep psychological wounds. Moreover, because most investors in such fraud schemes had a personal, face-to-face relationship with the fraudster, the sense of betrayal and personal victimization is often deeper than in financial crimes occurring among major players in the industry.
Combating investment fraud schemes is one of the highest priorities of the U.S. Department of Justice, and the offices of the United States Attorneys are in the forefront of that effort. The Securities Fraud Working Group of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which is co-chaired by a United States Attorney, is working with the FBI, IRS, SEC, CFTC, FTC, and many other relevant agencies to identify, investigate, and prosecute investment frauds nationwide. Since 2009, the Department has authorized 94 new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions, both criminal prosecutors and civil litigators, to combat financial fraud in districts all across the country. In every U.S. Attorney’s Office, the old position of corporate fraud coordinator has been redefined as financial fraud enforcement coordinator, to reflect a renewed emphasis on investment frauds and mortgage frauds that impact Main Street as well as Wall Street.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/priority-areas/financial-fraud/investment-fraud
These prosecutions happen all the time. Madoff made the headlines because it was so huge; Shkreli, because he is so hated.
brer cat
(27,587 posts)Very informative. Facts do matter to some of us.
I also hope you are correct in your assessment in the OP. This guy is slime.
TBF
(36,665 posts)rich folks like to keep a low profile as they rob us blind. He was blatant and obnoxious about it. Now he's an example to the others.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)
Brother Buzz
(39,895 posts)Evan L. Greebel allegedly aided the pharma executive in arranging fraudulent transactions, according to a federal indictment
Evan Greebel, center, was accompanied by law-enforcement officials Thursday after being arrested in New York.
A well-pedigreed corporate lawyer with extensive experience in high-stakes mergers and acquisitions played a critical role in helping pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli orchestrate a series of allegedly fraudulent transactions, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday.
Evan L. Greebel, most recently a New York partner at the white-shoe law firm Kaye Scholer LLP, was charged with one count of wire fraud, a crime that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Mr. Shkreli has been arrested on securities and wire fraud charges.
Related
Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Greebel helped Mr. Shkreli devise schemes to reimburse some personal creditors with money and stock from Retrophin Inc., RTRX -1.92 % a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company Mr. Shkreli founded in 2011. The creditors were individuals who’d invested in separate hedge funds started by Mr. Shkreli years earlier.
At the time of the alleged wrongdoing, from 2012 to 2013, Mr. Greebel was a partner at another well-regarded law firm, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. He moved to Kaye Scholer in July. While at Katten, Mr. Greebel served as lead outside counsel to Retrophin, according to the indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
<more>
http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawyer-linked-to-martin-shkreli-arrested-on-fraud-charge-1450393836
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)
leftyladyfrommo
(20,005 posts)He was so unbelievably arrogant. I really think he thought he was so brilliant that nobody was smart enough to catch him.
Some psychopaths are like that.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)and had some videotapes to return?
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)That at one time people hated Gats but they like him now. Gates didn't screw people out of their money like a thief.
krawhitham
(5,072 posts)Old Codger
(4,205 posts)
longship
(40,416 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2648425/Martin-Shkreli-SEC-complaint.pdf
The SEC complaint is a civil complaint only and indeed cannot send him to prison. It's the separate criminal indictment that will do that.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)
niyad
(132,430 posts)of course, he will probably end up in club fed, so no big deal for him.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)"Well son,you just do as much as you can..."
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)"Very well, the sentence is 240 months".
ProfessorGAC
(76,693 posts)Now that i think of it, sentencing someone to 7,300 days would be a scary way to hear that, even though 20 years is 20 years. That is just a much bigger number and has some shock value.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Over 3 months. And then thinking to yourself, "Okay, I only have to do that 72 more times".
ProfessorGAC
(76,693 posts)I can't imagine being in prison at all. I've never done anything bad enough to be sent to prison. I try not to imagine things that bad. But, you're right. It's a scary proposition.
pansypoo53219
(23,034 posts)worst punishment. make the shit POOR.
zentrum
(9,870 posts)rich guys he'll do time. If it's just small investors he'll pay fines and skate. The only reason Madoff was sent away was because he pissed off the wrong people.
Look what happened to the banksters after the 2008 melt down. No jail time for any of them.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Going to prison would seem nice in a schadenfreude kind of way, but I think losing a shit-ton of money will hurt him even worse.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)With his legal fees and the SEC lawsuit to force him to "disgorge his ill-gotten gains", his money will be gone.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)I hate that little prick.
southerncrone
(5,510 posts)
applegrove
(132,207 posts)the bank of England. They are instituting new regulations there that will see the direct supervisors of investment bankers, and the like, responsible for ensuring their employees are strictly following the new rules and regulations or there are consequences not just fines.Hope that comes to North America too.
Response to Nye Bevan (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)I literally cannot see any way that he could avoid a long prison sentence.
mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)They'll let him off. Hell, a guy who molested kids got off.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)That happened about 2 months ago. You may have seen this one that is connected to Shkreli:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/help-my-short-position-got-crushed-and-now-i-owe-e-trade-10644556-2015-11-19
That is the article about a guy who shorted KBIO and ended up going $100K in debt over night because Shkreli bought the company. At the time I didn't put it all together and condemned the trader for asking for help to pay his debt on his bad trade. Now I'm sympathetic... if e-trade gave him a credit line, his trade would now be positive, and actually worth double his original investment, as KBIO is no longer trading due to Shkreli's arrest and the subsequent ~50% stock price drop...
I will go as far as to say I actually feel sorry for the trader at this point in time. A complete reversal of my first reaction. He was really selling a total douche of an industry (US big Pharma) and a total douche of a human (Shkreli)
COLGATE4
(14,886 posts)happen to a nicer guy.
Ace Rothstein
(3,373 posts)Their conviction rate is off the charts high.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)and they take their sweet time dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. Many people seem to think that this investigation was inspired by Shkreli raising the price of the pills, but it has clearly been in the works for much longer than that.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)GOLGO 13
(1,681 posts)He brought it to flaunt his super wealth & enhance his affluent prestige. He also posted a pic of him holding an expired credit card from deceased Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain.
He's an immense, pretentious show-off and his hubris will soon cost him very freedom.
Lancero
(3,276 posts)That he screwed over by playing "Jack the price of lifesaving medicine sky high!"
H2O Man
(79,048 posts)Thank you for this. After reading the link, I agree 100%.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)"Robbing Peter to Pay Paul" isn't a business plan.
Proserpina
(2,352 posts)LeftishBrit
(41,453 posts)Sadly, if he'd stuck to his robbing of the poor he might have got away with it. But he apparently also robbed the rich, so he fortunately won't.
And he seems to be extremely stupid as well as crooked.
Tommy_Carcetti
(44,497 posts)What a pity.
hamsterjill
(17,576 posts)He is such a creep. I watched a couple of reports on him that had clips of his own video postings. He really is an arrogant, entitled, shriveled up, ugly asswipe that needs to be brought down a notch or two.