You can also change to pleading guilty at that point. It is very late but still has an impact on sentencing. It may also affect parole decisions.

Both Theranos execs were tried in Federal court. There's no parole in the Federal system.

This is one reason why you see generally longer "sentences" handed down in state courts (where parole is part of the picture) vs. in Federal (where the number is a more accurate representation of how long they'll be in custody).

Ok. They may still get a reduction for changing their plea at sentencing at least

Both almost certainly surrendered their passports at initial arrest. The time to have fled was before that point.

I think it would be safe to assume people in this high-flying financial orbit would have access to the sorts of people that could get them out of the country without a passport.

Just because you've ripped off Larry Ellison and Henry Kissinger doesn't quite grant you these kinds of globe-trotting powers.

I suppose you could always try to pay a coyote, but, uh, that's a bit of a high-risk play.

Or you could drive into Mexico, but without actually having fuck-you money and connections (These two don't), you're not likely going to stay outside of the arms of law enforcement for very long.

And if all this works out, and you end up on the run, you now have to full-sever every connection you have to anyone you know. Not a lot of fun.

Manning up and just doing the 11 or 13 years in Club Fed seems pretty attractive, compared to all that.

I think we're underestimating just how many very skilled folks are willing to lend a great deal of discretion for the right price.

Just look at the recent Carlos Ghosn[1] situation. Former USASF operators working as Private Security Contractors smuggled him out of the country. The plot involved what appears to be close to a dozen people too, and included falsifying passenger records on multiple international flights and more.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn

Ghosn, a Lebanese/French citizen, used American mercenaries to help him abscond from Japan for Lebanon, with at least an narrative (rightly or wrongly) that he wasn't allowed due process in Japan.

It's probably 2 orders of magnitude harder, in the long-term, to arrange for a high-profile American fugitive to use American mercenaries to abscond to another country.

Yeah, but doesn't Ghosn still, uh, have money? Theranos was a massive fraud.

Theranos was a massive fraud, but there was plenty of real money going around. Sunny allegedly still has access to millions, for instance.

It would not be surprising if these sorts of folks squirrelled away vast sums for a "rainy day" in places that make it difficult for governments to get. Seems pretty standard operating procedure for people who are legit - not just fraudsters.

I've never had CBP check my passport when walking into Mexico. And Mexican officials are always asleep or absent when I pass through their side. No matter, all they require to enter Mexico is a US Birth Certificate (but they don't ask) lol. People leaving by private boat or plane are basically on a trust system; how the hell would they know if you're flying to Hawaii or not if headed to the Pacific, or whether you're going somewhere foreign or to Puerto Rico or the USVI if you're sailing into the Caribbean?

I'm pretty sure there's thousands a day that walk into Mexico everyday without a passport. Hell half the people in line returning to the US claim they "forgot" theirs.

Leaving is easy without a passport. And don't forgot if Sunny can get to the shores of Pakistan, he is a citizen and they must let him in, after which he can easily hide in the tribal areas. All he would need is a yacht somewhere on the multi-thousands of miles on the coastline and some friendly boats in int'l waters to refuel him.

> how the hell would they know if you're flying to Hawaii or not if headed to the Pacific

Fwiw, you have scheduled flight plans and if a pilot did this deliberately they'd be reprimanded hard. You also have to land international flights in designated airports that have immigration. This wouldn't be easy to do if you're both wanted and bankrupt!

The thousands walking across the boarder don't have the problems someone like Sunny has though, including LEO's out looking for them, facial recognition systems, flagged bank accounts and credit cards, etc.

Someone like Sunny can't realistically just drive to and walk across the border.

You may be right. I don't have anywhere near Sunny's problems but I do have a flagged passport after I fought in the militia YPG in Syria (legal, but I seem to have been put on a list which has caused me endless issues with CBP). Alarm bells ring to the Nth degree when I enter, but as far as I can tell they don't have much mechanism to investigate pedestrians leaving. I'm guessing if they do have something it only focuses on some exceptional cases (like perhaps Sunny).

You are not currently wanted by the government - and only run into trouble after presenting a passport. This is not how a fugitive on the run would exit (or enter) a country.

There is a lot more to the DHS apparatus than simply scanning passports. Most of it is unseen by the public.

I am fascinated to learn more about the apparatus that checks pedestrians leaving the US. I understand there is doubtlessly unseen stuff going on there. Do you have any materials or primary sources I can look at to understand what you're talking about? It has been my experience when crossing after scanning my passport the officer goes from jovial to shocked/unexpected (I don't look like or act someone who would have a flagged passport) which leads me to believe there is at least in many cases no advanced warning to them a flagged individual is approaching.

Now I know the government must surely have these systems but I think it may be doubtful how effective they've set it up to be to stop people leaving the country if by foot. The flow of people leaving the border in general is just way lower scrutiny, in my experience living in a border state. I would be shocked if the average say non-violent felon fugitive has much trouble leaving if they're not on a flight manifest.

How did all that work? How did you hear about it and decide to help? Are you Kurdish? Were you a soldier already? Did you focus on journalism or medicine or sniping or anything?

How does the USA treat that in general? Do the people accept it, or praise it? Do they try to trick you into admitting legal problems with it? You can get back into the USA so I assume you must be a citizen?

What's your opinion on the general legality of fighting in a foreign war by choice?

Did you accomplish enough that you'd do it again?

Pakistan does not have an extraction treaty with the US, so there is no need to hide there.

Yet, Pakistan routinely cooperates with US when it suits them. Lack of extraction treaty is no guarantee of safety.

Didn't work out so well for Osama Bin Laden.

Sunny Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

He was born to Pakistani Hindu family.

Mexico has extradition agreements with the US. However it could ostensibly be a decent starting place to get fake documents and head off to begin a new life.

Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

He was Pakistani Hindu.

How much worse is it to flee now vs before? It’s not clear if Sunny is still 8 figure wealthy or not but it appears he is for now.

Balwani wasn’t going to go back to Pakistan and they wouldn’t have taken him even if he tried.

Carlos Ghosn agrees with your sentiment.

There are higher levels to the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's story. Had the media covered the story in the manner of Johnny Depp's trial or the drama comedy roast in, The Wolf of Wall Street, soon enough, we might know Jeffrey Epstein's sentencing length.

I'm not exactly sure of the connection here?

that guy is on another level : )

> splitting his time between Paris and Tokyo and logging roughly 150,000 miles (241 400 km) in airplanes per year

even before his latest adventures, he lived a very, very intense life all over the world, including the Lebanon, which is an adventure on its own. It'd be harder to pull off for an average tech executive.

If I'm ever a multi- billionaire, I will invest in a stand-by exfiltratiom team that is ready to get me out of whatever I get into and take me to a friendly place. If guys like Musk and Gates don't have this, their priorities are all wrong. I assume Peter Thiel does.

I'll gladly take your money to be on standby to exfiltrate you, good sir, and happily say "Sorry boss, can't be done" if you ever ask me to actually risk jail time for your privileged, billionnaire ass.

Hopefully your attitude would come to light during the interview or reference check

Good luck screening for someone dishonest enough to break the law, honest enough to go to jail for you like he promised, stupid enough to put your interests before his own, yet smart enough to rescue you from a foreign government.

Breaking the law does not make you dishonest.

Being paid to do something illegal gets you most of the way to the jail sentence to actually doing it, most of the time. So after the boss narcs you out for not doing the deed you'd be looking at jail either way.

First, let's explore your claim breaking the law is not dishonest. If a billionaire like Bill Gates is stuffed in a violin case and the airport officials asks me how many people will be on my flight and I don't include Bill Gates on the flight itinerary am I not being dishonest?

Second, your claim is if Bill Gates has me on retainer to break him out of jail and I don't break him out of jail I go to jail?

This is a surprising claim. You think Bill Gates goes around putting criminal activities in writing if the goal is to avoid going to jail?

You also seem to think Bill Gates wants to admit to the prosecutor that he illegally hired me to commit a crime, a seperate crime with additional jail time for Bill Gates in the hopes the prosecutor will go after me for revenge? If his goal is to stay out of jail he's going to switch goals to spending more time in jail to get back at me?

And the prosecutor is going to with a straight face announce to the world he's pressing charges on me for promising to break Bill Gates out of jail but not breaking Bill Gates out of jail? This is something you think is likely to happen?

One might almost think if Bill Gates wants to avoid jail the better strategy is hiring honest, law abiding people, avoid breaking the law, and avoid traveling to countries where you think the justice system is corrupt.

If breaking the law is dishonest because there are dishonest ways you can break the law, then speaking is dishonest because you can speak in ways where you tell a lie.

This breaks down because merely speaking is not sufficient to show someone is lying, just as breaking the law is not sufficient to show someone is dishonest. For instance, I can speak without dishonesty by telling the whole truth and you can break the law without dishonesty (say someone finds a pot seed on their property, and plants it -- illegal but not dishonest).

>Second, your claim is if Bill Gates has me on retainer to break him out of jail and I don't break him out of jail I go to jail?

Absolutely. It's conspiracy and this is a pretty well understood legal concept. The agreement to do the deed is the spoken part of the conspiracy and the physical taking of the money for it is the overt act needed to convict you.

note: this is for entertainment and not legal advice. I am not an attorney.

Do you remember the topic of discussion or are you typing replies in a vacuum?

You just argued everyone who commits a crime of conspiracy goes to jail while simultaneously arguing Bill Gates can commit a crime of conspiracy and avoid going to jail through the power of conspiracy.

Apparently everyone goes to jail for conspiracy but simultaneously Bill Gates can have people on retainers for years as part of a conspiracy and stay out of jail.

It just feels like you are typing replies for the sake of typing replies?

Also, crimes of dishonesty are dishonest, and pretending otherwise because you can imagine crimes which aren't dishonest isn't particularly convincing.

well, Ghosn was successfully exfiltrated by his team, so it is possible!

although his rescuers got busted, but let's hope he will make them whole eventually.