I am against capitol punishment, but the Chinese may be onto something.

[edhopper]

Chinese Fund Managers Sentenced to Death after Cheating Investors out of 1 Billion USD

HANGZHOU – Two brothers and their father were sentenced to death on Monday for cheating 15,000 investors out of over $1.1 billion in east China’s Zhejiang province.

Ji Wenhua, president of the Yintai Real Estate and Investment Group, was sentenced to death for the crime of fund-raising fraud, said the Intermediate People’s Court in the city of Lishui, where the company was based.

http://www.thechinamoneyreport.com/2011/11/10/chinese-fund-managers-sentenced-to-death-after-cheating-investors-out-of-1-billion-usd/

This might "regulate" Wall Street better than we are currently.

Yes it is :sarcasm:

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I'd settle for lengthy prison terms

I read a study several years ago suggesting that white-collar criminals are more motivated to behave themselves after one of their own gets sentenced to prison - more so than it works to deter all other types of crime. You would think the high-profile examples of Ken Lay & Bernie Madoff (even Abe Jackemoff, for that matter) would act as a deterrent, but it appears the message needs to get delivered - repeatedly.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Know what the penalty for drug smuggling is in China?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15006181

China executes Pakistani man on drugs charges

21 September 2011 Last updated at 09:06 ET Share this page

China has executed a Pakistani man, Zahid Husain Shah, despite last-ditch appeals for clemency, his family says.

Mr Shah, 35, was arrested in 2008 and was convicted last year of drug smuggling.

He was put to death by lethal injection in Shanghai on Wednesday morning.

Human rights groups had called on Beijing to stop the execution and urged Islamabad to take up appeals on his behalf. There was no comment from either government.

Relatives were allowed one last meeting with Mr Husain at Shanghai Detention Centre on Wednesday morning.

[edhopper]

4. You do get that this is NOT about the death penalty

But a comment about the thieves on Wall Street?

[RKP5637]

3. Too many in this country hid behind corporate shields. If corps. are people, then

they should be punished as people, and that punishment goes up the ladder to the CEOs. Too many corporations are legalized criminal operations.

[Pab Sungenis]

11. Then we need the Corporate Death Penalty.

Serious enough offense and your corporate charter is revoked and the directors are barred from forming or serving on the board of another corporation.

[RKP5637]

13. I think that would be excellent!!! n/t

[pinboy3niner]

5. We may joke about guillotines...

...but most here oppose capital punishment.

We don't want to kill major offenders. We only want justice.

[Philosopher King]

6. I do not support the death penalty either. However, I believe the US is far too lenient on some...

types of crimes and far too harsh on others.

Bernie Madoff is serving 150 years for his misdeeds, but his sentence is an exception in the realm of financial crimes. Other crimes that should carry harsher penalties include Medicaid and Medicare fraud, political bribery, and election fraud. These types of crimes are ripping the fabric of our society to shreds and we need to adjust the punishments to match the seriousness of the crimes.

In order to make room for these real criminals, we should simply empty our jail cells of those who are serving time for victimless crimes like drug use.

[jmowreader]

15. Bernie Madoff is serving 150 years for screwing the wrong people

Minimum buy-in for Madoff's "fund" was $100,000. You heard about the pension funds and mutual funds who only wanted to give Grandma a little brighter future who got took by Madoff, but the reality is, most of the people who lost money in Madoff's ponzi scheme were one-percenters.

If Madoff would have specialized in widows and orphans he would have gotten five years in the joint and been told not to do it again. He went after rich marks who should have known better--read the last couple pages of Harry Markopoulos' SEC filing, where Fairfield Sentry explains how the scheme was supposed to work, and you immediately think "who would fall for this?"--so he got triple life.

[firehorse]

18. His daughter in law said he was enjoying his time where he is incarcarated.

I don't know where he is, but from the interview I heard last week on Leonard Lopate, that Madoff has lots of leisure and recreation time and actually he enjoys it. He's not locked in a tiny cell all day with violent prisoner calling him Betty.

[jmowreader]

19. He's at Club Fed East

Also known as Medium Security Correctional Institution, Butner, NC.

The REAL reason he's in there, is to keep the people he swindled from killing him.

This is the inmate handbook for the prison he's in:

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/but/BUT_aohandbook.pdf

I don't think I've ever heard of Town Hall meetings in a prison before.

[Philosopher King]

21. That was my point, Madoff is the exception...

I favor increasing sentences for lower level schemes, and/or your "widows and orphans" too. I'm not really sure why you are okay with Madoff defrauding 1%ers; but it should be noted that one of Madoff's convictions was for the raiding of employee pension plans. Apart from that, I favor longer sentences without regard to the social status of the victims.

Furthermore, I do not disregard the other crimes I mentioned, and I favor longer sentences for individuals who are convicted of them. These are double-up crimes that deserve double-up time.

[jmowreader]

23. One percenters should have known better...

than to get mixed up with him.

The strategy Madoff was supposed to have employed (we know now he was running a Ponzi scheme, not an investment scheme, but we'll ignore that for a minute) worked as follows:

1. He bought 35 to 45 stocks that "highly correlated" to the S&P 100 index.

2. He sold out-of-the-money S&P 100 Index call options in an equivalent contract value dollar amount to the basket of equities.

3. He sold out-of-the-money S&P 100 Index put options in an equivalent contract value dollar amount to the calls.

This is a basic, conservative mutual fund strategy. And it will give your basic, conservative mutual fund returns--T-bills plus 30 or 40 basis points. Madoff claimed it returned 12 percent. You don't get to be a one-percenter if you don't know how to invest, and part of knowing how to invest is knowing how to recognize when someone's trying to screw you.

[girl gone mad]

24. They knew he was screwing someone.

They just assumed it was someone else.

[brewens]

7. Just fine our crooks right down to their last shit-stained pair of underwear

and they'll commit suicide! No need for capital punishment.

[tsuki]

8. Michele Bachman said that we should be more like China. nt

[formercia]

9. I'd settle for a Life term as the lowest paid worker in the Corporation

and paying restitution from their salary.

[Marengo]

10. Smoke & Mirrors. PRC government punishing anyone...

for corruption & graft is more a matter of eliminating competition than any measure of justice.

Or at least that's a a joke I heard in China.

[Zorra]

12. HANGZHOU?!? How ironic. nt

[Nye Bevan]

14. Just like many DUers are pro-choice except when it's a choice that they really, really dislike

(the Duggars having another baby, for example), it seems that many DUers are against the death penalty, except for when it's used against criminals that they really, really dislike.

[JVS]

16. They should make an agit prop reality show called "Chinese Justice"

The show would be a chance for the PRC to appeal to the sensibilities of the world by demonstrating their harshness with criminals who are coddled by other governments. People would tune in weekly and develop more positive feelings for the People's Republic of China. The cultural revolution must be televised.

[Marr]

17. The idea of executing some financier for fraud seemed bizarre to me when I read that headline.

Then I had stop and ask myself why. No matter how you feel about capitol punishment, I'll bet you're not shocked when you hear that a murder has been executed.

We're really conditioned here to accept lawlessness from the wealthy, aren't we?

[pinboy3niner]

20. I'm against capital punishment, but capitol punishment is fine with me

In fact, it's long overdue. :)

[JHB]

22. You can count on him being a fall guy...

He wouldn't have been able to do jack without connections in the ruling party, and you can bet those connections were well-paid for their attention.

Mr. Ji got caught, so he was disposable. Won't do a damn thing to stop the guys who fill the void he leaves.