Asklemmy

43941 readers

551 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

201

can anyone tell me the justification for putting Samuel Bankman-fried in prison for 25 years but Trump gets a fine? Is it federal vs. state? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by Professorozone@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Pretty much what the title says. I know he's a former president and has all of his supporters, but what's the official reason? Thanks.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

This isn't about the trial he lost from raping Jean Carroll. This is about Trump lost a trial about defrauding banks and insurance companies.

Bankman Fried defrauded banks, was put on criminal trial and was sent to jail Trump defrauded banks but was only put on civil trial resulting in a fine.

[–] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My bad, of course, not sure why the defamation trial was still in my head.

SBF engaged in things like securities fraud as well, which is harder to spin into a civil thing I guess.

My bet on why they decided to go the civil route is that Trump has the money to make things right (if he will that's another thing), and SBF has nothing.

So they've just decided to go the "better for everybody" route, since, well, it's better for everybody.

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 0 points 7 months ago

Why New York state is suing Trump instead of charging him with crimes

James seems to be taking this approach, as opposed to a criminal indictment, because New York law empowers the AG to seek damages caused by fraudulent business behavior as a form of consumer protection. The law doesn’t require the AG to identify a victim or even demonstrate anybody suffered harm. Plus, the burden of proof is lower in civil cases than in criminal ones.

“What makes this statute particularly powerful is that there doesn’t have to be a loss,” Will Thomas, a law professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told Yahoo Finance. “This statute has been used to disgorge profits illegally gained. The government can be allowed to claw back all of those profits. Provable nature is lower, and you don’t have to prove intent or willfulness.”

A civil suit also prevents James from bumping into the criminal case against Trump’s company that the Manhattan district attorney is prosecuting. Those two offices sometimes work together on criminal cases, as they’re doing on the recent indictment of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. With regard to Trump, however, they seem to be pursuing complementary approaches instead of overlapping ones.

So the answer is: it's easier to win, it's easier to punish Trump & they can still file criminal charges after a successful civil case if more crimes are uncovered.