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PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 03:31 PM Jun 2016

Prompting gasps, judge spares NY hedge fund executive prison for fraud

Last edited Mon Jun 13, 2016, 07:41 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Reuters

A New York hedge fund manager who at age 28 lost nearly all $57 million he oversaw in less than three weeks was spared prison on Monday, as the judge recognized how quickly and thoroughly the defendant owned up to his crimes.

Owen Li, the founder of Canarsie Capital LLC, was sentenced to probation by U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan, prompting gasps from spectators in the courtroom. The defendant then hugged his lawyer, Scott Resnik.

Li, now 30, had pleaded guilty in December to securities fraud and making a false statement.

Sweet had in March indicated he would likely sentence Li to five years in prison, less than federal guidelines advise and in line with prosecutors' recommendation.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-hedgefund-fraud-li-idUSKCN0YZ20C



Edited to add a link to the SEC action on Li (.pdf)
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2015/33-9991.pdf
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Prompting gasps, judge spares NY hedge fund executive prison for fraud (Original Post) PoliticAverse Jun 2016 OP
Madness!! Lint Head Jun 2016 #1
It's a big club Lint, and you ain't in it. Shemp Howard Jun 2016 #2
Yep, sad and pathetic! Most of American today is not in the club. n/t RKP5637 Jun 2016 #4
If that isn't the truth. N/t. okieinpain Jun 2016 #60
owned up? did he pay back the $57 mil? sentence should be subject to review if he does not pay back msongs Jun 2016 #3
+10 nt 99th_Monkey Jun 2016 #28
"Here are my mistakes, here's who I lied to" Eugene Jun 2016 #5
Why ruin his life... robbob Jun 2016 #30
+1 n/t. okieinpain Jun 2016 #61
He must be a great money manager bucolic_frolic Jun 2016 #6
I wonder how the judge expects him to pay back $56.8 million. n/t PoliticAverse Jun 2016 #7
Who hired him? Baitball Blogger Jun 2016 #12
how does that even happen? IronLionZion Jun 2016 #50
Ah, Commodities bucolic_frolic Jun 2016 #53
He didn't hedge it with short positions IronLionZion Jun 2016 #54
Putting one's brother-in-law in charge of the bankruptcy side of the business bucolic_frolic Jun 2016 #56
Kind of Weird ProfessorGAC Jun 2016 #62
So nice to have learned this week that there is redemption and forgiveness lapucelle Jun 2016 #8
^ BlancheSplanchnik Jun 2016 #18
Yeah, I agree........ socialist_n_TN Jun 2016 #47
This judge won't IronLionZion Jun 2016 #51
Cha ching, cha ching GeorgeGist Jun 2016 #9
"The defendant then hugged his lawyer..." Adsos Letter Jun 2016 #10
Let's recall another judge. Baitball Blogger Jun 2016 #11
Another case of affluenza? KansDem Jun 2016 #13
Does anyone here know how much it costs FuzzyRabbit Jun 2016 #14
Half of what he siphoned off before he went belly up n/t TexasBushwhacker Jun 2016 #15
same old same old LiberalLovinLug Jun 2016 #16
Didn't he use to swim for Stanford? KamaAina Jun 2016 #17
"Li, who attended Stanford University," - no mention if he was on the swim team. n/t PoliticAverse Jun 2016 #45
IOKIYAR Scientific Jun 2016 #19
Well, this didn't make the judicial system look biased at all! perdita9 Jun 2016 #20
Why is a 93 year old person still serving on the US District Courts? Fla Dem Jun 2016 #21
Yeah, I just saw that. geardaddy Jun 2016 #23
93 years old? ReRe Jun 2016 #42
This judge is 92 and still serving. geardaddy Jun 2016 #22
... 2naSalit Jun 2016 #57
It's economic terrorism bluestateguy Jun 2016 #24
It's all about the amount you steal and where it's from in America. roamer65 Jun 2016 #25
The Joke is on Martha Stewart and the rest of us Chasstev365 Jun 2016 #26
This message was self-deleted by its author IDemo Jun 2016 #27
the link is not working for me -- snot Jun 2016 #29
No, still works for me. Try this link the CNBC copy of the story... PoliticAverse Jun 2016 #35
Thx! snot Jun 2016 #63
Like we needed another reminder of how UN-equal our criminal justice (so-called) system is 99th_Monkey Jun 2016 #31
That's one bought-and-paid-for judge. nt valerief Jun 2016 #32
$57 Loss by Wall Street Fraudster gets Sweet Deal laserhaas Jun 2016 #33
Another example of the two-tiered justice system blackspade Jun 2016 #34
Did he only steal from poor people? PADemD Jun 2016 #36
Actually... Chan790 Jun 2016 #64
meanwhile if a black kid steals a coke...... pansypoo53219 Jun 2016 #37
So it doesn't matter if you rip people off as long as you display humilty afterwards... EndElectoral Jun 2016 #38
I'm thinking that perhaps not all of that $57 million was lost, Nye Bevan Jun 2016 #39
Things Will Be Different Under Hillary Clinton SoCalMusicLover Jun 2016 #40
Because the president calls judges to recommend what sentences they should impose? (nt) Nye Bevan Jun 2016 #41
President appoints judges, this was a Jimmy Carter appointment IronLionZion Jun 2016 #52
Because the executive should clearly interfere with the independent judiciary La Lioness Priyanka Jun 2016 #49
Someone will likley end up dead for Li's actions, Mendocino Jun 2016 #43
Brings new meaning to the term "family values". eom Mika Jun 2016 #58
Gee, how hard would it be to hide a couple million...... 7962 Jun 2016 #44
Until we actively engage in a broad judicial review at all levels of government, we're screwed Palimpsestuous Jun 2016 #46
I cannot believe this! smirkymonkey Jun 2016 #48
Amazing. underpants Jun 2016 #55
K&R Kurovski Jun 2016 #59

bucolic_frolic

(42,659 posts)
6. He must be a great money manager
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 03:40 PM
Jun 2016

100% loss in three weeks.

Does that compute to -1600% in one year if he kept going?

Baitball Blogger

(46,570 posts)
12. Who hired him?
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 04:04 PM
Jun 2016

Old ploy to put someone inexperienced in a job with the hope that they can plead him off as inexperienced if something goes wrong. No wrongful intent in incompetence.

IronLionZion

(45,252 posts)
50. how does that even happen?
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:31 AM
Jun 2016

the markets didn't crash that recently. The article says it was January 2015 when he went long on indexed commodities. It doesn't make any sense.

bucolic_frolic

(42,659 posts)
53. Ah, Commodities
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:42 AM
Jun 2016

Futures and Commodities

You can lose more than your investment

So he had no risk control, stop losses

He was just convinced of his own brilliance and insight, a good recipe for losing money

IronLionZion

(45,252 posts)
54. He didn't hedge it with short positions
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:45 AM
Jun 2016

he went all long and bet on the wrong stuff. It's crazy and makes me wonder if there's more to this story. Someone probably got rich off of this.



bucolic_frolic

(42,659 posts)
56. Putting one's brother-in-law in charge of the bankruptcy side of the business
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:55 AM
Jun 2016

has been done. 'You're seeking maximum growth with the public's money,
when it's driven into bankruptcy, we'll buy it back for peanuts.'

Seems to me this happened with a movie producer and a theater operator that
could barely stay solvent. Not sure if the public was aware of the conflict of interest.

ProfessorGAC

(64,413 posts)
62. Kind of Weird
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 02:17 PM
Jun 2016

I know we're working backwards here because it's a total loss, but:

If he lost everything, there's nothing left to lose, so we have to stop at 100%.

But yeah, if he repeated this 16 times in a year it would be 1600%.

However, let's pretend it was 50%, because he started at 114 million. At this rate he'd only have $690 left.

What a great money manager! As you said!

lapucelle

(18,037 posts)
8. So nice to have learned this week that there is redemption and forgiveness
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 03:43 PM
Jun 2016

for upper-class rapists and white collar mega-thieves and tough, no-nonsense punishment for the unprivileged and marginalized.

Let's hope this judge gets as much heat as the one in California did.



IronLionZion

(45,252 posts)
51. This judge won't
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:33 AM
Jun 2016

Won't get the widespread backlash like the rapist's judge. Just like the bankers in the subprime mortgage and resulting financial crisis didn't get any consequences except for the one dude with a Muslim name.

Fla Dem

(23,342 posts)
21. Why is a 93 year old person still serving on the US District Courts?
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 04:45 PM
Jun 2016

No disrespect to our older citizens, but come on, he's got to have lost some of his reasoning abilities.

Appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1978

District judge[edit]
Sweet was appointed to the federal court for the Southern District of New York by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed in 1978. He semi-retired into senior status in 1991.[2] One of Sweet's law clerks was Eliot Spitzer, who later became Governor of New York.[3]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Sweet

ReRe

(10,597 posts)
42. 93 years old?
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 07:18 PM
Jun 2016

Seriously. You can learn all kinds of things when you do a little research. That's wayyyy to old to be serving as anything, much less as a US District Court Judge.

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
25. It's all about the amount you steal and where it's from in America.
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 05:03 PM
Jun 2016

Rob a bank, do 20 years...rob a hedge fund, get off with slap of the wrist.

Response to PoliticAverse (Original post)

 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
31. Like we needed another reminder of how UN-equal our criminal justice (so-called) system is
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 05:29 PM
Jun 2016

It's a major slap in the 10s of thousands of very poor sitting in prison for being caught
with a few grams of pot or crack or whatever substance is on the streets these daze.

It's also adding injury to insult to the investors whose money he "lost".

i.e. It's very fucked up, on a bunch of different levels.

 

Chan790

(20,176 posts)
64. Actually...
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 09:11 PM
Jun 2016

to invest in a high-risk hedge like the one Li was running, the SEC requires you to be an accredited investor, meaning you must be worth at least $1M, not including the value of your primary residence and have income of $200,000/year ($300,000 household income, if married) or more and expect to earn the same in the current tax year, in addition to being deemed to understand the risk of such investments.

So...he only stole from rich people he made poor.

Nye Bevan

(25,406 posts)
39. I'm thinking that perhaps not all of that $57 million was lost,
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 06:22 PM
Jun 2016

and that some of that money was still around to "Sweet"-en his deal.

Always follow the money.

IronLionZion

(45,252 posts)
52. President appoints judges, this was a Jimmy Carter appointment
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 10:35 AM
Jun 2016

and sounds like he has long association with the Democratic party and candidates

Mendocino

(7,430 posts)
43. Someone will likley end up dead for Li's actions,
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 07:19 PM
Jun 2016

life savings gone, gun in mouth. Someone else drinks themselves to death on cheap plonk because they have no future. A family torn apart, domestic violence over impending poverty. But at least he was "contrite".

Palimpsestuous

(14 posts)
46. Until we actively engage in a broad judicial review at all levels of government, we're screwed
Mon Jun 13, 2016, 09:06 PM
Jun 2016

We currently have no effective system for impeaching judges for misconduct or grotesque favoritism. What kind of society expects to operate for long without effective judicial review? Our corruption as a society is nearly complete. I keep thinking about some popular person who commented in the media recently that we, as a nation, have no shame left at all. We're not embarrassed enough by the perfidy of our leaders for them to worry what we might do to them. The perpetual infantilization of the American public has come full circle. We're cows in a field.

Kurovski

(34,655 posts)
59. K&R
Tue Jun 14, 2016, 12:59 PM
Jun 2016

I'm sure our next president will do all they can to see that justice is always served during cases such as these.
















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