Woman Gets Jail For Food-Stamp Fraud; Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts

[CityGirl]

Had a quick piece of news I wanted to call attention to, in light of the recent developments at Zuccotti Park. For all of those who say the protesters have it wrong, and don’t really have a cause worth causing public unrest over, consider this story, sent to me by a friend on the Hill.
Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.

Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.

The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.
Wingate had the option of sentencing McLemore according to federal guidelines, which would have left her with a term of two months to eight months, followed by probation. Not good enough! Wingate was so outraged by McLemore’s fraud that he decided to serve her up the deluxe vacation, using another federal statute that permitted him to give her up to five years.

He ultimately gave her three years, saying, "The defendant's criminal record is simply abominable …. She has been the beneficiary of government generosity in state court."

Compare this court decision to
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...raudsters-get-bailouts-20111117#ixzz1eOst9Doi

I think this makes an interesting compare and contrast for discussion. After reading, what are your thoughts?

 

[Dana]

Shes making it hard for people who deserve food stamps. I say she deserves to be in jail.

 

[NuckingFuts]

4 drug convictions in her past. Plus committing fraud, so she can feed her kids. If I were that hard up, I would flip burgers. Hopefully while she is in jail she will turn her life around for the best, and her kids will go to a loving home that can take care of them all.

 

[Dana]

I like how people have this mentality that if the government is fucking us over we should be allowed to fuck them over. You still have to be held liable for your misdoings.

 

[CityGirl]

I think Taibbi is pointing out the double standard on prosecution of fraud. Some may think he could have found a more worthy welfare recipient to use as an example but I think he was using one with a not so moral background to compare and contrast with the immoral corporate person. I've no doubt that some of those real persons who occupy high positions in their corporate personhood would not pass a drug screen.

Here’s another thing that boggles my mind: You get busted for drugs in this country, and it turns out you can make yourself ineligible to receive food stamps.

But you can be a serial fraud offender like Citigroup, which has repeatedly been dragged into court for the same offenses and has repeatedly ignored court injunctions to abstain from fraud, and this does not make you ineligible to receive $45 billion in bailouts and other forms of federal assistance.

This is the reason why all of these settlements allowing banks to walk away without "admissions of wrongdoing" are particularly insidious. A normal person, once he gets a felony conviction, immediately begins to lose his rights as a citizen.

But white-collar criminals of the type we’ve seen in recent years on Wall Street – both the individuals and the corporate "citizens" – do not suffer these ramifications. They commit crimes without real consequence, allowing them to retain access to the full smorgasbord of subsidies and financial welfare programs that, let’s face it, are the source of most of their profits.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...raudsters-get-bailouts-20111117#ixzz1eSKmTRYZ

 

[Panacea]

There's a double standard for sure. Everyone should pay for committing fraud, but they don't.