Mastodawn

Qasim Rashid, Esq.

Zuckerburg is paying only $190M to settle an $8B lawsuit by Facebook shareholders for failing in his oversight duties in the Cambridge Analytica crime.

A reminder that even $8B would’ve been only 3% of his net worth, and $190M is only .08% of his net worth.

About $75 for ordinary working people.
Another reminder that “If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class.”

AlmostlyHarmless Dec 29

@QasimRashid For the ultra-wealthy, it's not a fine, it's a business expense.

@D3jaBr3w @QasimRashid He might even get tax deductions by paying the business expense a.k.a fine!

/j

Joan of Contention 😷Dec 29

@D3jaBr3w @QasimRashid A rounding error; not even the cost of doing business.

AlmostlyHarmless Dec 29

@clickhere @QasimRashid Definitely more accurate.

@QasimRashid A fine is a price.

ZenHeathen 🇨🇦Dec 29

@QasimRashid "Punishable by a fine means permissible for a price"

Andrew Zonenberg Dec 29

@QasimRashid That's where income/net worth based fines come in. Finland recently handed out a six figure fine to a multimillionaire for a speeding ticket.

If your courts and legal system are willing to hand out >$10B fines or punitive damages to the super rich it might actually hurt enough for them to pay attention. Think "I have to sell enough $company stock in one day to pay the fine that I crater the share price and materially dilute my percentage of ownership" level penalties.

MisterStormwing Dec 29

@azonenberg @QasimRashid for the likes of Zuck, $350 B is more like it.

@azonenberg @QasimRashid similar systems have been proposed for fraud or exploitative profiting. 3x the gains being the minimum fine. Currently firms might make $100m selling a known dangerous product and be fined $50,000 for knowingly doing it. When that's the original 100m + 300m fines the equation changes very quickly, as do the introduction management jail terms (like workplace safety laws in Australia)

Exactly, basically if a fine is the punishment, it will mean they are above the law…
Hence they need to be held personally accountable by other means.
It needs to stop…

cauZation Dec 29

@QasimRashid At scale, it's so far removed from a more ethical 10% flat tax rate, that countermeasures become more extreme in return.

As history is shown, often in cataclysmic scales, this is utter folly - especially given ample opportunity to graduate these abuses of power.

Remove #Oligarchy #TechBros from power, before there are NO future generations.

Simplistic Trance‐Like Getaway Dec 29

@QasimRashid If I had that kind of money then my worries would've been sweeped away momentarily.

@QasimRashid An interesting question here, that we will never get to know the answer to, is why did the plaintiffs accept such a low settlement? Was it because they thought they would lose, was it pure short-term venality, or was there some other threat or bribe?

Since the plaintiffs were "the Facebook shareholders" I assume this was always a "whoever wins, the rest of us lose" situation, but still.

@jwz @QasimRashid more blackmail perhaps?

J. Peterson Dec 29

@jwz @QasimRashid Years ago, I was part of a class action settlement that I also thought was really low.

I complained about it on the plaintiff lawyer's website. To my surprise, the senior partner at the firm called me back.

The lawyer explained that the deep pocketed corporation would happily fight all the way to the Supreme Court. And the result there was anybody's guess. Better to take the money now.

Lucky for us, the judge stepped in and said, "Hey, you owe the plaintiffs more money!"

Andrea Corbellini Dec 29

@QasimRashid the problem with these fines (which in proportion are less than a slap on the wrist) is that they *encourage* companies to act evil.

If you commit a crime but then nobody finds out, you're going to live under fear for a while at least. But if you get caught and the punishment is close to nothing, then what stops you from committing even more crimes?

Andrea Corbellini Dec 29

@QasimRashid these silly fines only increase the confidence in corporates to make deliberate bad actions. They know that if they get caught, the profits they make are always going to be higher than any fine

George B Dec 29

Business fines should be expressed as a multiplier on the maximum estimate of money made/saved by doing the crime

@QasimRashid perfectly stated. Every word.

@QasimRashid Fines _could_ be set proportional to net worth.

Unholy Ordnance Dec 29

Cambridge Analytica gave us Brexit - calculate the kids to UK and get the perpetrators to refund us.

Maximilian Overdraft, Esq.Dec 29

Courts have to be willing to ban the wealthy from business and other activities, to dismantle corporations, to make entire business models illegal. Society has to be ready to seize wealth as fruit of the poisonous tree of crime.

The wealthy must not be allowed to leverage the privilege of their wealth to get immunity and favor.

@QasimRashid this reminds me, that once I had idea, that fines, not taxes, should be the real first source basic income, if the scheme is ever deployed.

If it is call "tax", then it should be used to fund the public infrastructure, whatever it is.

If it is called "fine", then everyone else is the society should be recipient of the fine.

The basic income resulting from the fines would be negligible, but nobody could deny that it would be fair.

@QasimRashid Hoarding things is now a recognised mental illness. The likes of these super wealthy people, Zuckerberg, Besos and Musk, are all afflicted with this same mental illness - hoarding far more money than they need or will ever use.

Jacob Urlich 🌍Dec 29

@QasimRashid The JAIL is needed.

Alex Rosenberg Dec 30

@QasimRashid This should have been the first corporate death penalty, manipulating world politics like that is a whole new level beyond treason.