- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- 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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He makes a lot of history, none of it good.
I’m hoping he’ll make a tiny bit of good history when he beefs it.
Does this set a precedent for the President to pardon private mercenary companies?
And his own company that he definitely does not control or have an input on its day to day
Yes
OMG, for BitMEX of all things?? I expected at least a fossil fuel company of some sort.
It’s the exchange he used for Trump coin, and the one the Argentina president used for his scam coin.
Also Hawk Tuah coin.
These scams were all connected via the same digital wallets.
Easier to launder money and have illicit money activities through crypto than fossil fuels
April’s fools!
Right? Right?..
Wait, so for example, this company had to pay $230 million in fines. Suppose that they did a $20 million “donation” to the president (which, being a crypto exchange, could be done in untraceable Monero). Then they get pardoned even if they aren’t incorporated in the States and they claimed to not operate at all in the USA. When is the last time that you heard Trump caring this much about foreign companies who pay $0 in American taxes? Usually he is like “fuck them fuck that and slap additional tariffs on them”
Like that Nikola guy who sent Trump a $2 million “donation” and then by pure coincidence and sheer luck got pardoned.
More crypto scam horseshit
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
They don’t face any consequences anyway…so they’re being pardoned from the consequences they don’t actually face
If corporations can receive pardons, then corporations should be able to receive the death penalty.
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
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.
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.
There is a death penalty you can actually execute against a corporation, you can dissolve their charter. For some reason this is seen as more extreme than putting a human being to death.
What happens to their stuff? I’d guess “it depends”. There’s no clear heirs or estate with a company, I think.
Like any corporation, the trustees assign value to all assets and the assets are sold off. Money collected pays off creditors
The government could seize the assets and liquidate/auction them
It’s worth a try, let’s do it.
Such public benefits now fall prey to the whims of the president with his pardon of a cryptocurrency company that smacks of political corruption.
So a man who promised to pardon his friends and allies, once elected, pardons his friends and allies. Is that corruption or is it just government policy by this point?
Hey if a corporation can be pardoned does that mean a corporation can be charged with crimes such as manslaughter?
America is no longer a country. Non MAGAts should leave the country and seek refuge in countries that aren’t run by fascist dictatorships.
We are truly in the second Gilded Age.
More like the gelded age.
Jaded age
Is this another terrible consequence downwind of Citizen’s United?
Yes
