ie Sophia Amoruso, who ran her company into bankruptcy and immediately jumped into running a media company and having a Netflix show about women in business
Be a woman: “this woman used her gender to scam”
And yeah, bad actors will sometimes use accusations of sexism / racism / etc-isms to silence those speaking the truth about them.
I dunno, I'd say it kinda failed here.
Meanwhile Shkreli - who's "victims" lost zero money - is going to spend 7 years in jail and has lost at least $10 million because the government decided to take it over.
I would love to see people complaining about gender gaps addressing the huge gender gap in our justice system, because cases like this are a slap in the face.
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[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-theranos-sec/theranos-and...
1. Holmes is not out of the hot water yet. DOJ could still press charges and seek jail time.
2. What makes you think Theranos is paying her fine?
3. Holmes also loses 18.9 million (probably worthless) shares.
> Meanwhile Shkreli - who's "victims" lost zero money - is going to spend 7 years in jail and has lost at least $10 million because the government decided to take it over.
1. "no one was hurt" is never a valid legal defense. Not if you break into a company's networks. Not if you break into someone's house. Not if you sell drugs. And not if you commit fraud. In the case of fraud laws, the reason for this is actually obvious and rational: deterrence. No one ever thinks they're going to lose it all. If we only punished fraud that didn't work out in the end, the law would not have its intended deterrent effect.
However, "no one was hurt" can act as a mitigating factor in sentencing! However...
2. Character and remorse also matter in sentencing. As does settling. Who knows how much lighter Shkreli's sentence could've been if he settled. Or at least managed to just go home and shut up during sentencing.
Some of these observations might be troubling (e.g., being punished for exercising your right to a trial; going to jail for an extra year because you're an asshole in public) but they aren't gender issues.
> I would love to see people complaining about gender gaps addressing the huge gender gap in our justice system, because cases like this are a slap in the face.
This is a real problem [1]. But if you want to push the dial on this, maybe find someone other than Shkreli as your victim figure? (Also, the best way of closing this gap is probably less time for men, not more time for women.)
[1] https://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/features/Pages/starr_g...
I think it's extremely misguided to regard fairness to criminals or defending them as victims as the goal here - the important thing is, as you seem to sort of agree, to deter bad actors and encourage good ones.
Oh, I didn't intend that as a defense of Theranos. I intended that as a justification for punishing Shkreli.
> the important thing is, as you seem to sort of agree, to deter bad actors and encourage good ones.
I think punishment has many societal functions, some of them more rational than others, but all legitimate in their own way.
I would certainly not say that all functions of punishment in society are legitimate. There was just a news article about someone whose exculpatory DNA evidence will not prevent them being executed. Assuming that sort of thing happens occasionally (regardless whether it's true as reported in this case) then it certainly serves a societal purpose to avoid admitting prosecutorial error, but it's not legitimate.
[1] https://www.spin.com/2017/08/martin-shkreli-jury-selection-t...
> Holmes has never sold any of her Theranos stock.
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-4...
Here's the nuance of her formula:
Commit fraud as an attractive, well-connected WASP woman who happened to be neighbors with well-connected VC Draper family.
Tell a great story: Stanford drop-out who studied Chinese, afraid of needles, wants to help the world.
Leverage Silicon Valley connections to pull in other really big fish, such as Kissinger, et al, who would be really, really embarrassed that they were so hoodwinked by an ingenue.
Use that cognitive dissonance to raise more and more money, while having no technology whatsoever.
Get even more and bigger fish such as Biden to vouch for you.
Wrap your company in total mysterious secrecy.
Declare anyone against you as against women in business. Works like a charm and will happen again in the future.