consistently, day after day you see the same types of news stories
so we just let corporations and rich people buy their way out of court while the rest of us get to go through the joke we call a legal system
so we just let corporations and rich people buy their way out of court while the rest of us get to go through the joke we call a legal system
FTC: $22.5 million penalty sends message to Google - The Washington PostGoogle admits no wrongdoing but will pay 22.5m to sidestep charges over privacy violations ...
Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty — the largest ever levied by the Federal Trade Commission — to settle charges that it failed to honor the privacy settings of millions of people who use Apple’s Safari Web browser, regulators said Thursday.
But while some consumer privacy rights advocates cheered the settlement, others said it was inadequate, given Google’s size and its history of flouting the privacy promises it makes to consumers. Among the critics was FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch, who said that allowing Google to settle without admitting wrongdoing was “inexplicable.”
UPDATE 1-Morgan Stanley price-fixing pact fought by AARP wins OK | ReutersMorgan Stanley admits no wrongdoing but will pay $4.8m to sidestep charges over price-fixing ...
Morgan Stanley to pay $4.8 mln, no admission of wrongdoing
* Electricity price-fixing said to cost consumers $300 mln
The government said the arrangement allowed KeySpan to withhold substantial electricity generating capacity from the market, driving prices higher for consumers, and generated $21.6 million of net revenue for Morgan Stanley.
"Given the government's stark allegations of manipulative conduct against Morgan Stanley, disgorgement of $4.8 million is a relatively mild sanction," Pauley wrote. "There is a risk that a large financial services firm like Morgan Stanley could view such a modest penalty as merely a cost of doing business.
The judge also rejected the AARP argument that the $4.8 million be returned to consumers, in part because sending it instead to the U.S. Treasury served the public interest.
Company previously known as Blackwater agrees to $7.5 million fine in arms smuggling case - The Washington PostCompany previously known as Blackwater agrees to $7.5 million fine in arms smuggling case
The international security contractor formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle federal criminal charges related to arms smuggling and other crimes.
Documents unsealed Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in North Carolina said the company, now called Academi LLC, agreed to pay the fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement to settle 17 violations.