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Comment by sbassi | Hacker News Reader

so how do you disincentivize prospective criminals to do this in the future?

The people who do crimes like this are usually looking for money and/or power.

So, take away their money via fines/restitution and take away their power by banning them from founding companies or being involved in certain industries.

11 years in prison seems more vindictive than it does preventative.

> take away their money via fines/restitution

And how does that work when her husband is incredibly wealthy? She will still live in absolute luxury.

Good question. Maybe take what they took, garnish future wages, have them make some kind of restitution, or something similar. I think if prison sentences were applied reasonably, reliably, and objectively they'd be a better deterrent. For instance, if it wasn't a gamble worth taking, if the consequences were guaranteed and applied evenly, I think people wouldn't risk this kind of fraud. Overcompensating by applying rare and lengthy prison sentences as a warning just makes this akin to a ghost story that rich people tell each other.

This is in fact not rare. By the book she got much less than she could have. People are failing to grasp the scale of the fraud she committed, I think. The rare thing is just that fraud at this scale doesn’t happen very often, but the sentencing guidelines are written out and very clear.

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