I stand corrected. After reading the whole article, it looks like the guy had an incredibly bad lawyer. The jury wasn't even sure what they convicted him of... He should have molested young girls, like the Floridan HF guy who got only 13 months in the local jail with 16 hours away time a day.... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=217713
In stories like this, there's usually always some relevant facts left out. There have to be facts left out of this one. Why would a special agent use a wire to catch a guy for small-fry tax fraud? Don't make sense.
because he has a quota by the number not by the size. that is how governments operate. if the government worked by sense/patriotism would the US congress have put the US in the current sinkhole/abyss?
Exactly. It explains why the SEC targeted and forced thousands of small time operators to settle cases over the past several years. They could not afford the legal costs to do battle. But the big fish can. In a NY Times article some year or so ago, an ex-SEC person explained the pressure to rack up enforcement numbers incentivized them to go after the easy targets, even the ones of dubious merit. David Einhorn wrote the book "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time". Bill Ackman wrote a similar one. Plus ca change...
You mean like when you start selling weed and the cops give you tickets for taillights and license plate lights, running stop signs on your bicycle, spitting on the sidewalk, your 33rd degree Masonic boss demotes you, etc?