People like the Enron group come to mind, but I’m also talking about simple swindlers who latch onto an old person, take all their savings and disappear.
Often I read where a person accused of swindling, say twenty people of a hundred grand each in a land fraud. He’s fined $1million, or half his ill gotten net worth. His prison time is a couple years at most, and he comes out a millionaire. Better off than if he’d robbed a bank of 2 grand.
So, I’d suggest that any white collar crime that either has a lot of victims, or essentially wipes out just a couple victims, should result in absolute poverty when they get out of prison. No house, no car, no computer, no cell phone, no suit or shoes, except the prison issue that poor prisoners get to go home in.
All his belongings would be auctioned off or given to charities.
And his Rolodex of business contacts shredded.
Most people released from prison are condemned to poverty. Few employers will consider them. Often, the only work they can get is menial, low-paid and with little chance for advancement. This greatly contributes to recidivism, you can imagine.
White collar criminals are usually better off-- they have families and friends with money, and extensive social networks which can get them back on their feet quickly. It would be almost impossible to eliminate these contacts.
Your idea is impractical for several reasons, not the least of which is that it would be unconstitutional. If you force a man onto the streets with no food and no clothing, chances are, he’ll do something drastic to get some. Next, by selling off all of his assets, your’re potentially harming innocent victims, like his wife or children. Lastly, you remove a tax-payer from the system and turn him into a permenant burden on society.
There’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about today.
“An eight-term congressman and former Vietnam fighting ace has tearfully confessed that he took $2.4 million US in bribes, including a yacht while pleading guilty to multiple graft charges in a San Diego court”
When he gets out, probably in a couple of years, he will be loaded, sailing his yacht.
He was loaded before the graft.
I’d say take that as well. Just let him live like the poorest of his constituents, who would probably lose all they had in lawyers’ fees if they merely dared to spit on his yacht.
Prison and/or hefty fine as punishment. This has to be appropriate to the crime and the constitutional protection against “cruel and unusual punishment” is sure to come into play.
If the person abused a particular job or position of authority they should be prohibited from holding it again, in the same way that we might suspend (temporarily or permanently, depending on the offense) the drivers license of someone who crashed their car. For example if an accountant was up to financial shenanigans then she should have her CPA license revoked.
However the person should be allowed to make a legal living after they have paid their debt to society. If they go on to become a millionaire afterwards because they become a great computer programmer or whatever, then I don’t see why society can go after them again and confiscate their legal earnings.
In that congressman’s case, suppose he was worth a (legal) $20 million before he did anything wrong. Is it OK to fine him $20M for a $2.4M bribery case?