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Comment by fomine3 | Hacker News Reader

Because only Ghosn (considered to) did embezzlement?

The embezzlement charges didn't seem to make much sense when I took a look. Taken literally, sure, maybe he embezzled. But this is a guy who basically set his own salary at whatever number he wanted every year for 20 years. And apparently there was a culture at the top of the company where the executives were able to spend quite freely using company money. If you are able to simply legally pay yourself more if you want to, the only reason you wouldn't is that you are under the impression you can simply use company money for personal use anyway. What's the difference, really? It's almost just an accounting issue; clarification for investors.

I read the articles a long time ago so I may be off by a bit but I recall that when I did the math Carlos Ghosn had a personal net worth of at least ~$115 million _at the time he was accused of embezzling just a few million dollars._ It's like a millionaire stealing $20,000. Certainly possible, but more likely to be some sort of misunderstanding given the circumstances.

I don't expect this to be a popular comment. But the charges never made much sense to me. And normally in cases of corporate embezzlement there isn't such a compelling alternate narrative/conspiracy to explain what happened.

I read it the same way. You said it better than I could.

It seems like an easy way to remove a Gaijin from a Nipponjin-position. Or maybe he made some other execs unhappy behind the scenes.

This is Fair. For GP:

> Why were none of the Japanese executives arrested?

Then zero arrest is expected, or you have any suspicion?

Saikawa, the CEO of Nissan at the time of Ghosn's arrest, has admitted to being overpaid.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/09/nissan-ceo-saikawa-to-step-d...

Martha Stewart went to prison for insider trading to avoid a loss of $45,673. She was worth in the hundreds of millions at the time.

Martha Stewart went to prison for lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice, not for insider trading. The "insider trading" (not actually a crime; the actual criminal thing in such cases tends to be "securities fraud") charges were variously dropped or dismissed by the court, depending on the charge.

So she was actually innocent (in the legal system sense, at least) of the crime she was initially accused of, but guilty of obstructing the investigation.

Similar to the Ghosn story, actually: he's guilty of jumping bail and whatnot no matter what's going on with the substantive issue of embezzlement.

> Martha Stewart went to prison for lying to federal investigators

Kids, if the FBI comes a-knocking, shut. Your. Fat. Fucking. Mouth.

Ask for a lawyer and the shut the fuck up. It doesn't matter if you're innocent.

If you talk to the Feds and make a mistake, you can be charged with a felony for lying to to federal agents. Did you talk to that guy on Saturday, May 20th, 2017? Who knows? The Feds do, and if you don't remember precise details, you got yourself a felony charge. Felony. Even if you are innocent of anything else, you lied to a Federal investigator.

Shut up. Ask for a lawyer. And shut up.

(I'm OK with the downvotes, if this helps someone remember to shut up and get a lawyer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgWHrkDX35o

It's always shut the fuck up Friday. 7 days a week.

I advice you to reform the US federal criminal law.

It's a glaring injustice that a completely random innocent person can be prosecuted for saying "I don't know"

Where do you live? I can guarantee your state security/police operates in a roughly comparable manner.

I live in places where light doesn't shine not of really my own choosing, because the Western establishment is really determined on destroying its business, and industry.

It's a shame that people who do have an option to not to live in hellholes, and having functioning democracy can't lift a finger to do something about that instead of doing nothing, while rambling on internet forums.

That's a few decimal places down from the point. Stewart was sentenced to five months of prison for what was a $45,673 crime which she then later had to repay with interest. She was worth 100s of millions at the time.

The point was that it's not impossible, merely because Ghosn was rich, that he didn't do the deed.

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