Thread: Major Disparity eh?

This is about my girlfriend's ex-boss, the disgraced fat cat attorney Marc Dreier. He pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced Monday. His lawyer is looking for a ten year sentence and the prosecution wants one hundred forty five years. We are still hoping to get some of the pay and benefit money he owes Scarlett:

The Associated Press: Prosecutors seek 145 years in prison for lawyer

Wow...Scarlett worked for Dreier? 145 years...seems a tad excessive, I have to admit. What amounts to a sentence to die in prison for financial crimes. Madoff is older, no rational prison term would have allowed him the possibility of a life outside prison, but Dreier is what, 50?
At the same time, 10 years sounds light.

This was about the same spread that Madoff's lawyers looked at. Because Dreier didn't steal so directly from charities and friends, perhaps his crimes are seen as less awful? Or because he wasn't a cornerstone of Wall Street, making us all look like dupes?

Edit: Have they mentioned any chance of recovering money? I know he was about broke by the time he was caught.

I'm always a little mixed on these...

Why is stealing less of a crime when it is white collar?

Originally Posted by smokelaw1

Wow...Scarlett worked for Dreier? 145 years...seems a tad excessive, I have to admit. What amounts to a sentence to die in prison for financial crimes. Madoff is older, no rational prison term would have allowed him the possibility of a life outside prison, but Dreier is what, 50?
At the same time, 10 years sounds light.

This was about the same spread that Madoff's lawyers looked at. Because Dreier didn't steal so directly from charities and friends, perhaps his crimes are seen as less awful? Or because he wasn't a cornerstone of Wall Street, making us all look like dupes?

Edit: Have they mentioned any chance of recovering money? I know he was about broke by the time he was caught.

Yup Scarlett worked for Dreier, LLP until they collapsed while she was out of state working on a trial. She was one of twenty five employees that stayed to help the few clients that didn't bolt. Then they got picked up by another big firm.

What Dreier did was steal $400,000,000 from client escrow accounts, That is a major breech of trust. He got picked up in Canada impersonating another lawyer at a bank trying to make a withdrawel. He was using the other lawyer's business card (you may remember Jake did the same scam in the movie Chinatown). When the feds went through Dreier's NY office they found a box full of thirty some odd cell phones, each one with a label of who he was supposed to be while using it. He had a $50,000/month penthouse in Manhattan and a huge art collection plus the cars, boats and planes. His arrogance was amazing. He must have been planning to skip because he had to know he would eventually get busted.

I'm with you Slabartifast. If some thug robbed a bank of $400 million no one on the planet would expect him to get only ten years. Dreier was like a smaller Enron. He ruined the lives of alot of people who trusted him. Hundreds of clients and employees lost not only their futures but their past savings as well. Dreier also squandered the retirement accounts of all his people.

Originally Posted by smokelaw1

145 years...seems a tad excessive,

No worries. Generally they will only have to serve a third of their sentence.

Hmmm.. my follow up post never posted.

I just wanted to be clear that I don't think the 10 year request is reasonable either, just that four times his expected remaining life behind bars? I think somewhere between the 10 and 145 is the way to go.
I believed the same with Madoff. I understand the rationale of wanting to send a message though.

If he had robbed a bank, I'd feel about the same way...unless he shot someone (which obviosly changes things).

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I'm always a little mixed on these...

Why is stealing less of a crime when it is white collar?

Beacuse all of the white collars are connected to one another, the blue collars are not that organized or influential.

He was sentenced to twenty years. I think that is very encouraging to those who would like to do the same.

That should amount to a life sentence, provided he went to a real prison and not the Martha Stewart kind.

It'll be minimum security and he'll probably do a third of the time.