Matt Taibbi adds another message/reason for OWS.

[trumad]

Woman Gets Jail For Food-Stamp Fraud; Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts

<snip>
Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.

Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.

The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.

<snip>
Compare this court decision to the fraud settlements on Wall Street. Like McLemore, fraud defendants like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank have "been the beneficiary of government generosity." Goldman got $12.9 billion just through the AIG bailout. Citigroup got $45 billion, plus hundreds of billions in government guarantees.

All of these companies have been repeatedly dragged into court for fraud, and not one individual defendant has ever been forced to give back anything like a significant portion of his ill-gotten gains. The closest we've come is in a fraud case involving Citi, in which a pair of executives, Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, were fined the token amounts of $100,000 and $80,000, respectively, for lying to shareholders about the extent of Citi’s debt.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/woman-gets-jail-for-food-stamp-fraud-wall-street-fraudsters-get-bailouts-20111117#ixzz1eFbneAmd

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[polichick]

2. "With liberty and justice for all" MY ASS! k&r

[deutsey]

9. Right up with "Equal Justice Under Law" n/t

[reggie the dog]

3. but she is a lying, drug using, unwed mother

if she is black then she is EVERYTHING the right wing hates, see they like lying, drug using, wed men who are white....

[lonestarnot]

4. K & R

[starroute]

5. Judge Wingate is the heartless SOB who railroaded Paul Minor

Does anybody else remember this?

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Justice_for_Sale_How_Big_Tobacco_0828.html

June 24, 2008

There was no state law prohibiting Minor's contributions, and his trial resulted in an acquittal on some charges and a deadlocked jury on others. However, this trial was immediately followed by the unsealing of fresh charges.

During the second trial, presiding Judge Henry Wingate excluded evidence showing that Minor had a long-established pattern of offering loans or loan guarantees to his friends in the legal community, thus creating the appearance that Minor had helped the three judges in hopes of receiving something in return.

Although prosecutors were unable to prove that Minor had bribed the judges in exchange for favors from the bench, the second trial resulted in a conviction. The jury determined that a quid pro quo had taken place between Minor and two of the judges, Teel and Whitfield, in large part because Judge Wingate had instructed them it was not necessary for the prosecution to prove bribery. . . .

In a startling similarity to the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman -- who was also targeted by a Bush-appointed US Attorney -- Minor has been denied appeal bond. Both Siegelman and Minor, despite being convicted of white-collar, non-violent crimes, were shackled and manacled, and moved to out-of-state prisons.

[lovelyrita]

6. Heartless.

Stories like this make are so sad. Would it have been better if she just stole the food or should her kids starve?

[applegrove]

7. There are so many types of inequality going on these days. Good that we shine a light on all of it.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. kik

[JoePhilly]

11. She needs to fire her lobbyist.

:sarcasm: