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Comment by BoxFour | Hacker News Reader

I’m not someone who wants prison purely as a punitive measure. I’d much rather the focus be on rehabilitation. But you’re making it sound like Elizabeth Holmes was accused of something relatively "harmless" like insider trading, rather than what she actually did.

A small sample from Wikipedia:

> In January 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to Theranos based on a 2015 inspection of its Newark, California lab, reporting that the facility caused "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety" due to a test to determine the correct dose of the blood-thinning drug warfarin

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She was not convicted of crimes against patients. She was only convicted of crimes against investors.

I’m aware, and Al Capone was busted for taxes. I’m still content with his conviction and punishment.

It seems cruel and unkind to punish someone for a crime they were tried for and found not guilty (on all counts) of.

True, poor Al Capone!

Sadly this is an explicit allowance of the justice system. :-/ There was a case about it, though I don’t have the reference handy.

What is this, army of accounts for hire to sway sympathies like its election times?

Most people in prisons, especially US prisons, are not anyhow threat to society. That 1 or 2 joints that got people in bible belt states for solid 2 years is one example.

If you are questioning basis of basically every law system in place anywhere in the world, thats a fine discussion but please frame it like that. She is a criminal, fraud, liar, thief and god knows what else, in range of hundreds of millions. Jail for her, a long one, no special sympathy for nepo kids. Sort of litmus paper of whether US justice system still works as intended.

You're in agreement then that people who commit tax fraud should be imprisoned?

Especially the wealthy and/or powerful, 100% yes.

Sure, everyone who commits tax fraud, including the wealthy and powerful, will go to jail then. We're going to need more prisons.

edit: just realized that al capone was busted for tax evasion, not tax fraud. we're going to need even more prisons than I realized.

I’m more than happy to start laying brick myself if it means holding the wealthy accountable by the legal system.

This isn’t the strong argument you think it is.

I'm not making any argument, just stating your position.

Great! Let’s build the white collar prisons, then.

I won't be participating in the building of prisons, but I will watch you build them.

She could not have been charged with crimes against investors if the patient's blood work results were correct. She knowingly lied about the capability of these devices knowing it would garner investors. That's the crime she got convicted of, luckely no one appears to have died from the invalid medical testing.

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