comment: >
  
  If nobody is going to jail, then it’s just the cost of doing business. ￼
context: Until the punishment is worse than the crime it won’t stop. >
  
  And that's the bottom line. >
  
  And THAT'S...
  ...the REST of the story. >
  
  Paul Harvey - Good day. >
  
  17 counts, 15 years and the best they could come up with was $1.6 million??? >
  
  Fines should be pegged at 10x-25x the valued "savings" from the scheme >
  
  The people responsible should be pegged, too. >
  
  What if they enjoy that sort of thing? >
  
  Then use hot sauce for lube. >
  
  What if they enjoy that sort of thing? >
  
  Don't use the sauce then. >
  
  Maybe sand? >
  
  I don't know if they grade it but... coarse. >
  
  It comes in grades, so the,srber the number the larger the grain size.  I use #60 sFor sandblasting so maybe #20 for extra pain? >
  
  The rich can get away with anything in this fucking country. $1.6mil? That's nothing, absolutely disgraceful. >
  
  It's the maximum fine allowable. The laws should change.
  If it feels better, there's also a $250M civil suit going on >
  
  Meanwhile, first thing congressional republicans voted to do is gut the IRS to prevent tax code enforcement. >
  
  It doesn't matter what the house does since it'll never pass the senate and on the extremely rare chance it does Biden would veto it.
  The house Republicans know this and are just posturing not accomplishing anything. >
  
  Yes, but they are indicating what their top priority is if they do get power, and it’s just gross. Apparently they’re all into law enforcement when it comes to poor people, but not for the rich. I’m no liberal, but shit like that makes me super anti-republican. >
  
  The funny thing is, you want to posture with things that are popular, to show what you could/would do with more power. And according to polling, this isn’t popular even with their base. Probably very popular with their corporate donors though.
  Bunch of dangerous dumbasses >
  
  So basically stole money for years and had to pay it back with a negative interest rate. >
  
  Turns out, when you the lower the bar far enough down, it does show you he was smart! >
  
  That was under welming....probably made more on interest from fraud >
  
  It’s hilarious. They probably spent more on their legal bills just this quarter. >
  
  Most of he legal bills are paid for by the RNC. >
  
  The equivalents of a few $$ for normal people, it's laughable... >
  
  It's equivalent to someone with $10,000 in savings paying a $5 fine. >
  
  “The sheer magnitude of the fraud calls for the maximum possible fine 
  for falsifying business records and helping senior managers evade taxes 
  as they defrauded the tax authorities."
  The Judge agreed. Trump's business was a giant fraud, like his "University" and his "Foundation". >
  
  So the corporate lobby was allowed to write state law regarding financial penalties. Cool, cool. >
  
  Very legal, very cool >
  
  Honest question: if there were multiple counts and years, why isn't there a separate fine or charge for each count/year? >
  
  Which begs the question of why a so-called billionaire went through all that effort to save 800k over 10 years >
  
  I saw poor people go through MUCH worse for tax fraud, and this scumbag only gets a 1.6 million fine?! >
  
  So... nothing. Nothing at all.
  The citizens and the Constitution of the US Demand equal justice. 
  Black kid in ATL gets 10 years for having a $20 bag of weed. 
  A white guy in a suit gets 30 days for stealing the retirement savings of 100's of people.
  If there is no Justice, there is no Law. >
  
  $1.6 million? That's  almost as much as they paid Weisselberg. >
  
  1.6 million for tax fraud? They made more than 1.6 million in their tax fraud scheme... >
  
  Yeah, but it’s only stealing from commoners that pay taxes, so no biggie. >
  
  Tax fraud -> fines
  Shoplifting  -> jail
  Cool. Cool cool cool. >
  
  Just think of the amount they stole. Just like their "charities."  Again, slapped on the wrist and are not allowed to have any more charities..... woopty do. But, think about the amount of money that was just stolen. 
  There's two worlds, and we don't live in that world.
  I don't care about being rich or poor, but the fucking laws should be the same for those who commit the crime. 
  If you think that you or I are going to change that, you're in for a long depressing life. 
  We have one short life, instead, use your energy to better your own life. You're wasting your time worrying about those fucks. >
  
  Travesty of justice.  For all the money Trump got illegally, $1.6 million is nothing. >
  
  Federal Fraud = Felony. How about some prison time? >
  
  When’s he going to prison? None of us would be free and running around if we did half the shit he’s getting away with. It’s a sign of how truly fucked up our country is. >
  
  He will never spend a day in prison. >
  
  You’re probably right. His idiot cult (who ironically call themselves patriots) will make sure of that. >
  
  And they wonder why people want to burn the whole thing down >
  
  But they will never reach the far out, private places where the billionaires live, so all they burn are places where poor people live. >
  
  His NFT cards are clearly Not For Taxes. >
  
  “$1.6 million you say”. Reaches into bottom drawer >
  
  For Trump and his cronies, this is simply the cost of doing business. What an absolute joke. >
  
  So basically a small slap on the wrist considering the length and extent of the fraud. Well done! /s >
  
  It's better than nothing but I don't really feel like relatively small fines count as justice or discourage other organizations from committing similar crimes.
  I guess maybe I'm partly upset about corporations using their monopoly like positions or co-ordinating using software to raise prices far in excess of what inflation adjustment would be which somehow isn't illegal at all despite it being basically war profiteering.
  I'm just mad at the system and how little power we the people seem to have. >
  
  cost of doing business,  again. >
  
  That's a fee not a fine. >
  
  Those are rookie numbers. Once again white collar crime by rich white people barely have any punishment
  Edit. There shouldn't be such a low cap on the fines >
  
  Our laws are woefully inadequate at dealing with the crimes of the rich because most of them were written by the rich. A fine that puny comes out of petty cash and they move on and the thought of any exec seeing real jail time is laughable >
  
  Merely the cost of doing (illegal) business. Remember folks, if you’re wealthy and connected and white, crimes pays in the USA. >
  
  "..and when you're a star, they let you do it.. you can do anything...." >
  
  Why aren't these people in prison? No offence but if any of us did this, we'd be in jail rn >
  
  About as useful as fining me $3 after I already profited $100,000 from a fraudulent investment.
  Let me do it 17 more times, I'll pay the $51 in fines after walking away with nearly $2mil.
  In fact, here's an extra $9 for charity. I'm a saint. >
  
  Did the judge fine the Trump Org. more than they made? If they didn't, the trial is worthless. >
  
  At this point we're the fools for not doing the same thing. The penalty is less than the amount they got out of paying. >
  
  Make no mistake: You would get 25 years in prison, forced to pay back everything as restitution, and a hefty $250,000,000 fine. >
  
  True. I'm not made of Teflon like rich people are. >
  
  1,6 mil? They can probably find that underneath the couch cushions in the lobby...  Hopefully the fact that they got fined at all is more impactful than the fine itself. >
  
  That’s it? 1.6 million? That’s pocket change. >
  
  That’ll teach ‘em 🤦🏼‍♂️ >
  
  6-years of appeals and it won't matter >
  
  Does that even count as a fraction of what they made pulling this scheme off? >
  
  It's probably just a drop in the bucket. Disgusting organization >
  
  .. really? 1.6 MILLION???? That's it??? >
  
  Sounds like it was worth it in the long run that's a mechanism corporation's use if they're going to get fined a billion dollars they keep running till they make 2 billion profit. >
  
  Pathetic. If I was found guilty of one of these charges my life would be over >
  
  I wonder what would happen to an average American who commits years of tax fraud.
  In a just world, everyone involved in this would be in jail AND pay back everything stolen plus interest. But here we are. >
  
  and he'll never pay that either
  funny how these self described über-patriots never ever want to pitch in to pay their share or help their country in any real way >
  
  And they don't even have to pay the hidden taxes? >
  
  A few dozen tens of millions more and it'll be just enough to actually matter. >
  
  Still a small slap for them. Put Junior in prison for a while and that might actually get their attention. >
  
  Sounds like incentive for tax fraud >
  
  And who says crime doesn't pay, amirite? >
  
  I imagine the judge received 10x that in an offshore account. >
  
  They were fined a fraction of what they benefitted by skirting the law for a decade and a half?  
  That's not punishment. That's protection money. >
  
  I'm willing to bet I know how this all started too...Trump is a cheap fuck who hates paying people what they are owed...I guarantee he suggested this tax fraud as a way to financially engineer their compensation - tells the CFO "I won't pay you $1.5 million. That's absurd. I won't pay you a dime over $800,000 - you figure out what I need to give you in perks that you won't have to claim on your taxes that'll make it seem like I'm paying you $1.5 million, then we'll both be happy, okay?" >
  
  Whoopie, another slap on the wrist.   Probably stole $`100,000,000 from the treasury over the years by cheating on his taxes. >
  
  $1.6 million???  They pocketed much more than that in tax savings.  How does this "punishment" fit the crime or prevent others from doing it in the future? >
  
  That’ll show ‘em! Good job, Justice system that’s been manipulated by business interests since the beginning >
  
  That’s just a user fee. >
  
  Fine = price of business to save 50 million >
  
  The fine should at the very least cover the (actual) taxpayer’s costs of the investigation. This fine is kind of a “F you” to the average law abiding citizen. >
  
  ... what a fucking waste of time. They won't even notice it's gone, and they probably saved a ton more than that with their tax fraud...
  It's not as if they're some mom-and-pop sandwich shop or something small that would actually suffer from the fines... >
  
  Just another tax-deductible cost of doing business. >
  
  But when I do it I go to prison for 10 years. >
  
  It should be noted $1.6 million is the max penalty. So basically if one were inclined to steal money from the state, as long as it’s over $1.6 million, there’s no reason not to do it. >
  
  Meanwhile IRS threatening to audit me for $30 Venmo for pizza