Interesting Articles...

[zh cohen]

FTFY

-1

If prison is not a deterrent, it is because people don't know what it is like in there.

I go pretty regularly, and if I was ever considering doing something that would land me in there it certainly would stop me.

[good sam]

Such ganuvim deserve to be hanged from the tallest tree in central park.

We dont hang ganuvim. They work and pay off their debts. Thats the torah way. We know in certain sectors money is the end all and "ganuvim" are hung, but its not that way in real life or al pi halucha.

This is not petty theft. There should be a special punishment for someone who causes this sort of destruction in the community. I'm quite certain even a Jewish beis din has this sort of latitude.

[Moshe123]

He did get money from the creme de la creme. I always wondered when i saw him working the register at KD the week before Pesach.

Maybe he closed them because he was making way more money stealing.

[hvaces42]

Maybe he closed them because he was making way more money stealing.

Unlikely

[Super Speed]

What are we talking about over here, I feel like I'm in middle of a conversation but I don't see the beginning.

[hvaces42]

What are we talking about over here, I feel like I'm in middle of a conversation but I don't see the beginning.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/platinum-partners-fraud-case-has-investigators-casting-wide-net-1482436724

[churnbabychurn]

This funds assets were primarily level 3 - which basically means hard to value/not marketable securities/aka bs.
(Could be litteraly anything. - from equity in small businesses, loans, insurance contracts, real estate, etc etc etc. It doesn't matter- the bad auditors rely on management estimates and perform some garbage reasonablness tests..Provide clean financials and all of a sudden the fund made 15% last year..)
Investor money is swept out as management fees and performance fees... -  based on the funds performance!

Anyway, they had consistent massive unrealized gains by booking bogus appreciation on these "assets".

It's all very nice untill investors wish to redeem. - kesef minolon?

And here, in 2015, buried in the article that mentions all the other relatively petty fraud that they were involved in, Bloomberg mentions the main scam. But no one paid attention...

The valuation report, dated March 2014, shows that illiquid, hard-to-value assets make up much of Platinum’s portfolio. The second-biggest holding is a group of oil fields in California. The valuation agent, Murray Grenville, didn’t respond to requests for comment. The fund’s auditor, CohnReznick LLP, a New York-based accounting firm with 2,500 employees, declined to comment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-21/no-blow-up-is-big-enough-to-tarnish-platinum-partners-returns

Anyone with even a minimal amount of professional skepticism would have called this years ago.

[Emkay]

Anyone with even a minimal amount of professional skepticism would have called this years ago.

We are all great Monday night quarterbacks.

[JTZ]

We are all great Monday night morning quarterbacks.

[TimT]

People have been sounding the alarm on them for years. But they couldn't prove any wrongdoing, just that it didn't make sense.

[hvaces42]

People have been sounding the alarm on them for years. But they couldn't prove any wrongdoing, just that it didn't make sense.

He came off as squeaky clean. Never heard a word about them either. No one was sounding any alarms.

[TimT]

No one was sounding any alarms.

-1

[churnbabychurn]

We are all great Monday night quarterbacks.

-1 imho the auditors dropped the ball BIG time.

[David Smith]

This x100.

Prison is 150% about society's need for revenge, and -50% deterrence/punishment.

ETA: I'm talking about for financial crimes, not when the person is a danger to those around him and needs to be locked up.

The rehabilitation rates in prison are abominable. The percentage that revert and are bank in prison are through the roof. Prisons tend to be a severely dehumanizing experience with no positive outcomes, yet societies need for a feeling of domination supercedes logic.

[Dan]

The rehabilitation rates in prison are abominable. The percentage that revert and are bank in prison are through the roof. Prisons tend to be a severely dehumanizing experience with no positive outcomes, yet societies need for a feeling of domination supercedes logic.

I think they're intended more as a deterrent for people that might commit a crime than a rehabilitation institute.