- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary:
In what may be a first in American history, President Trump just expanded the presidential pardon power to include corporations.
Corporations are artificial legal fictions designed to maximize shareholder wealth. Nonetheless, they can theoretically commit crimes and be indicted for them. According to a 1999 memorandum from the Justice Department, the “important public benefits” of prosecuting corporations include “deterrence on a massive scale,” particularly for “crimes that carry with them a substantial risk of public harm,” such as “financial frauds.”
Such public benefits now fall prey to the whims of the president with his pardon of a cryptocurrency company that smacks of political corruption.
On Friday, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons to four individuals and a related cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX.
BitMEX solicits and takes orders for trades in derivatives tied to the value of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Last summer, BitMEX entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court for violating the Bank Secrecy Act for having operated without a legitimate anti-money laundering program. Prior to August 2020, customers could register to trade with BitMEX anonymously, providing only verified email addresses. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Opinion newsletter
On Jan. 15, 2025, BitMEX was criminally fined $100 million in connection with its guilty plea, which was on top of $130 million in civil penalties previously imposed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. At sentencing, the judge noted that BitMEX, which is incorporated in the Seychelles, had claimed not to operate in the U.S. for several years even though U.S. customers comprised a large share of its business.
April’s fools!
Right? Right?..
Wait, so for example, this company had to pay $230 million in fines. Suppose that they did a $20 million “donation” to the president (which, being a crypto exchange, could be done in untraceable Monero). Then they get pardoned even if they aren’t incorporated in the States and they claimed to not operate at all in the USA. When is the last time that you heard Trump caring this much about foreign companies who pay $0 in American taxes? Usually he is like “fuck them fuck that and slap additional tariffs on them”
Like that Nikola guy who sent Trump a $2 million “donation” and then by pure coincidence and sheer luck got pardoned.