When I first heard that states were looking to confiscate $5B from the Sackler family, I was pleasantly surprised, only to find out that they’re worth more than $13B.<p>As long as the financial punishment don’t outpace this kind of behavior among the wealthy, it’s really just a tax on them.
Is it really possible that from Me Too to Purdue to tech anti trust that we are really at the beginning of a true populist backlash against entrenched power?<p>I am skeptical but there are many threads spinning here.<p>(Also, to be clear, I think the current Warren tech-are-utilities thing is bozo)
Sounds like the kinda fraud that makes for no-knock raids in the early morning. Of course it is difficult to make a case if you never use the laughable barrier that is judicial consent to search.
This is confusing as hell.<p>So they are using financial records to claim that they are hiding assets...their evidence for this is...the financial records...that they have...already. How does that work?<p>And they went to the trouble of briefing against the Sacklers but don't explain what information they don't have already or aren't being given (i.e. why they believe something is being hidden). They just say: we have the records, boy there is a lot of them, we haven't gone through them all...but we know they aren't complete...the bois working hard there.<p>And why is the punishment related to individual wealth at all? Are limited liability companies not really limited when a state govt laywer changes their mind? If someone breaks the law then charge the person who breaks the law (the point here is a headline for a politican...which is unfortunate given that some people at the company were clearly acting improperly).<p>Also, transferring money to a Swiss bank account is not against the law. The lawyer quoted says it was moved offshore to "conceal" the source of money...that isn't how money laundering works. You need to move it to an account that won't report to the US authorities..this doesn't exist in Switzerland or anywhere in the world (a disadvantage of weak libel laws, I am pretty sure this would be actionable in Commonwealth law systems given how obviously erroneous and misleading the statement is).<p>The whole lawyer/politician thing in the US is entertaining as an outsider. It is utterly bizarre when considered using any kind of logic.