- cross-posted to:
- aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
Summary:
In what may be a first in American history, President Trump just expanded the presidential pardon power to include corporations.
Corporations are artificial legal fictions designed to maximize shareholder wealth. Nonetheless, they can theoretically commit crimes and be indicted for them. According to a 1999 memorandum from the Justice Department, the “important public benefits” of prosecuting corporations include “deterrence on a massive scale,” particularly for “crimes that carry with them a substantial risk of public harm,” such as “financial frauds.”
Such public benefits now fall prey to the whims of the president with his pardon of a cryptocurrency company that smacks of political corruption.
On Friday, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons to four individuals and a related cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX.
BitMEX solicits and takes orders for trades in derivatives tied to the value of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Last summer, BitMEX entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court for violating the Bank Secrecy Act for having operated without a legitimate anti-money laundering program. Prior to August 2020, customers could register to trade with BitMEX anonymously, providing only verified email addresses. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Opinion newsletter
On Jan. 15, 2025, BitMEX was criminally fined $100 million in connection with its guilty plea, which was on top of $130 million in civil penalties previously imposed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. At sentencing, the judge noted that BitMEX, which is incorporated in the Seychelles, had claimed not to operate in the U.S. for several years even though U.S. customers comprised a large share of its business.
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The grift is real, in plain sight - and the MAGAts still think he cares about them 🤣
They still think he’s going to hunt down and stop all the Democrat run baby sex trafficking pizza kitchens.
They think he already has, and the only thing keeping them from popping back up into existence is him sitting on the throne.
Oh my god, I had managed to completely forget about the pedophile pizzeria shit - tabarnak, there’s just too much crazy to keep track of.
The conspiracy theory was that child-molesters ran the government. To fix it, they elected child-molesters to run the government.
I’ve always assumed that was the whole point
tabarnak
Got to hand it to the Québécois. Some of their profanity is just so much fun to say.
So Trump starts mining company for Bitcoin as they announced. Then once they have a decent amount they start investing all the gold from Fort Knox into Bitcoin as previously stated by the white House to inflate prices. Then uses the money for illegal bribes with anonymous accounts? Something like that I assume
If corporations can receive pardons, then corporations should be able to receive the death penalty.
Nope sorry, corporations can only be ‘people’ legally if it endows all of the benefits but none of the risks.
I’m told this is a cornerstone of capitalism.
Reminds me of this quote from Ambrose Bierce from the Devil’s Dictionary:
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Devil’s_Dictionary/C
- https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce
There’s a lot of good ones in this book.
They can.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_death_penalty
Personally I prefer the avenue where all their IP is copylefted. Really, its a great way to spur innovation.
I hope one day we do this to all for profit companies. Imagine all for profit companies IP becoming open source, and only allowing nonprofits to form to replace them. It would be a huge Renaissance and economic success
The longer this goes on, the more I think about Flying Squid, and think he was right to gtfo of dodge
Sadly, most folks aren’t in a position to gtfo of dodge, as much as we would like to.
Most folks aren’t willing* to gtfo of dodge.
Seriously, I’ve had this conversation on Lemmy so many times. Every so often someone has a disability or is broke poor with no degree, but the other times people say things like “family”.
You don’t think FlyingSquid had a family? I’ve immigrated twice. You think I don’t have a family?
Most people who want to go can go. But most people don’t actually want to go.
You don’t think FlyingSquid had a family? I’ve immigrated twice. You think I don’t have a family?
FlyingSquid left the USA because of his family. His child was part of a group targeted by modern day conservatives. He did the most important job as a father and protected his child. He took his child to a safe country.
I hate my family, only have a weak associates degree, and have fucking cancer.
Also FlyingSquid literally left for the sake of their family, a trans child who needed out of the USA
I dislike FS but he literally left the country because of his family. His daughter is targetted by MAGA fascism, and he got her and his family out.
He had the means to and I don’t blame him for getting out. If I had the money I would too, and give my friends the means to as well.
I am (sorta - it would still take a tremendous amount of effort), but I also have dreams I want to chase here that just aren’t possible elsewhere. It’s a real shitty catch-22.
Ah did they poof? Wondered why I hadn’t seen them around recently.
I believe flyingsquid moved to Britain? I’m trying to remember. I think they are still busy getting readjusted to life across the pond, and hopefully they’ll return to being active on Lemmy soon
Is that what happened?
I figured he’d still come back to post. Ive been afraid something worse happened.
He probably just swapping handles after getting too much recognition. Or hes that one guy who fled to canada lol
Moved to Britain with the family
April Fools! Right? RIGHT? It’s an April Fools joke isn’t it?
Aww fuk.
Corporations, by contrast, cannot go to jail and or be physically executed
Ok so technically we can’t physically execute a corporation, but we could get pretty close if we rounded up the board and c-suite.
It’s worth a try, let’s do it.
And major shareholders.
We are truly in the second Gilded Age.
More like the gelded age.
Jaded age
My first reaction was “is that even legal?”
And then my second reaction was it doesn’t really matter with Trump there:
All this, and Biden wasn’t allowed to forgive our student loans…
That right there is something I’ll never forgive him for. He could’ve had the DoE wipe everything from their servers as an official act, helped millions, and gotten off Scot-free.
Instead he drug his feet, let Repubs tie it up in court, and ultimately failed all but a select few student borrowers.
Biden administration fought pretty hard for the student loan forgiveness. To the point where they were still able to forgive billions of dollars through other means after the blanket forgiveness was shot down. They were pretty creative with some of the ways they did it.
There are a lot of things to be mad at Biden about, but this really shouldn’t be one of them.
My forgiveness was exactly $0.00. Glad he helped some, but at the end of they day he failed to help me.
Glad he helped some, but at the end of they day he failed to help me.
The mantra of the modern conservative. Somehow I don’t believe the first part of that sentence based on this conversation.
The beauty of the truth is that it’s true whether or not you believe it.
I agree completely. And given the comment you made directly before the last one, it’s pretty obvious that you are not happy that other people got loan forgiveness and you did not.
Too soon.
I’m 100% sure that no money went to Trump and this is purely his goodwill.
Because Trump is definitely the guy that would support a foreign company that supposedly doesn’t operate in the USA
Guess we know who will be running his grift programs from now on…
This is still the beginning, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The rule of law no longer exists in the US. This has such deep implications, you can barely fathom them.
Nah, don’t be such a doomer.
They don’t face any consequences anyway…so they’re being pardoned from the consequences they don’t actually face
About right for April Fools.
Subtract this amount from the DOGE “savings”
More crypto scam horseshit
Is this another terrible consequence downwind of Citizens United?
Yes
