to be angry with us about that - those Swiss bank secrecy laws have been the source for a lot of profits over the years and now the notion that bad guys can have a secret swiss bank account is a thing of the past.
As you know, Roman Polanski has been under penthouse arrest as he waited for the Swiss to decide whether to extradite him to California. Much to the chagrin of the RP lynch mob – which is pretty much everyone on the Board – I have consistently argued that the extradition of this 76 year old man who posed no future threat of criminal conduct could not be justified on a cost benefit basis at a time when California prisons are so inadequately maintained that they are under court order to release thousands of prisoners.
As best as I can tell, here is the inside story of the Swiss refusal to extradite Roman Polanski.
Remember that RP pleaded guilty to statutory rape. The probation report recommended no jail time but only a psychiatric evaluation. As part of the plea deal, the judge purportedly ordered RP to undergo a 90 day psych evaluation in Chino prison and agreed he would not have to serve any jail time if he received a clean bill of mental health. So RP spent 42 days in a prison undergoing the psych evaluation.
The shrink released him after 42 days finding no pedophilia problems. In a post-release hearing, the judge nonetheless “suggested” that RP should spend some time in prison and denied ever agreeing that the pysch confinement was the sentence. RP and his atty believed the judge had lied about the deal. It was at this point that RP bolted.
Flash forward to the Swiss decision. Apparently, RP submitted a sworn affidavit that the 90 day psych “order” was the “sentence” pronounced by the judge and the early release was consistent with the order. RP claimed that testimony from his atty at the time would prove this. Other evidence was also presented that the judge had acted improperly.
Inexplicably, California prosecutors refused to provide the transcripts of the attorney’s testimony. So the Swiss were faced with sworn testimony from RP that he had served his sentence, no contrary sworn testimony, evidence of improper action by the judge, and a refusal by California to provide the attorney testimony that purportedly would corroborate RP’s testimony.
On this record, is it really a surprise that the Swiss refused to extradite him for more punishment (double jeopardy would indeed preclude this under appropriate circumstances)?
“Our office complied fully with all of the factual and legal requirements of the extradition treaty and requests by the U.S. and Swiss Departments of Justice and State,” District Attorney Steven Cooley said, as he prepared to stick his head in the deep sand of Manhattan Beach to avoid follow-up questions.
California revels in expensive prosecutions of celebrities who are quickly released after hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent prosecuting them. (See Exhibit 1 Paris Hilton). Now the bill for this ill-conceived extradition will probably be a couple of hundred thousand.
Maybe this money should have been used to improve conditions for those already in prison who will be released bc California taxpayers have refused to bring their prisons up to constitutional minimum standards. But that wouldn’t have engendered any headlines for DA Cooper who is planning to run for state atty general.
California justice at its finest.
-- Modified on 7/14/2010 11:05:57 AM
they can take a lesson from Sheriff Joe.
Tent villages, baloney sandwiches, inmates growing their own food. Joe houses inmates cheaper than pretty much anywhere else.
I think your argument about not prosecuting pedophies due to expense is pretty sad. Regarding conditions in prisons, CLUE, PRISONS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PLESANT!!
Lynch mob? Cost benefit?
He drugged and RAPED a 13 year old girl. THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!!!!
Who gives a rat's ass how old he is now? He commited a crime. A heinous one. He should have spent the rest of his unnatural and misbegotten life behind bars. After being castrated that is. One centimeter at a time.
Jesus Mari, is there nothing in this world that is inhuman and disgusting enough that even you can't bring yourself to be an apologist for???
''The officials said that the denial of access to the information was the key factor in the refusal to extradite the film maker to the U.S., according to the letter to the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland.
A district attorney's spokeswoman said their office was never notified of the Swiss request and did not know that the Justice Department had turned it down.''
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/flub_freed_polanski_H04tNrasYpXZzuiPKsaa5I?offset=8#comments
is the one who dropped the ball by not relaying the Swiss request to California and turning it down. On the other hand, other parts of the report seem to indicate knowledge by state officlals of the request.
The report also says the Swiss wanted the testimony of the prosecutor, not the defense attorney.
All very confusing but it is clear that someone on the US side was not on the ball.
Wonder if the US DOJ and Holder going after Swiss banking giant UBS last year to disclose identities of American bank holders had anything to do with the Swiss not cooperating to extradite Polanski ?
to be angry with us about that - those Swiss bank secrecy laws have been the source for a lot of profits over the years and now the notion that bad guys can have a secret swiss bank account is a thing of the past.
GS just settled with the SEC, and the stock is trading above $150. How many times did you say the words "shit" and "son of a bitch" in the past few months? Ain't going help your BAC position. I don't know what I can say or do to convince you buy and hold is DEAD.
Back to your year long Polanski quest. Let's pretend California is awash in cash, and doesn't have a deficit problem. Let's also assume existing prisoners health care and overall conditions have the marikod seal of approval. Would your position be the same as every other poster on this board, i.e. bring this piece of shit home and throw his pathetic little pedophile ass in jail? I haven't read all your postings on this topic, I mean really they do pop up every couple of months. So I assume your only concern is on the cost/benefit side.
and jumping bail. He should be required to serve all criminal sanctions imposed on him for these crimes.
But where the state is lacking in the resources to provide the constitutional minimum standards for its prisons, spending money on a 30 year cold case to make a 76 man who is not even in the country serve a little more time is an incredible waste of resources. I'm really surprised you do not see it with your usual sound economic analysis of issues.
As to BAC, I have brought my escape point down to 17.85 as a result of more buying during the dip. When they reinstate the dividend, I predict I will be able to ruefully escape but who knows when that will be.
Whether we like it or not, the economy trumps all other issues, and the thought of pissing away $100K, $500K $1M or more on this dated crime doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Unfortunately we are the victims of incompetent government, including the prosecution back in the 70s. In a perfect world RP should be in jail. You can rest assured if this case happened today, the circumstances would be completely different.
I'm trying to be rational, but at the same time I have a teenage daughter, hence my conundrum. I know you can understand the repeated backlash your posts have received over the past year. My only advice would be the intro to your argument, i.e. the guy is a piece of shit, he should rot in hell, if it was my daughter I'd cut his nuts off, BUT..........
Re BAC, I'm amazed that you keep buying to reduce your cost basis. You do know there are better financials out there, or you could buy some tech companies. Just convince yourself you bought BAC when you bought the other stock. I might be "trendy", but I do admire your "take no prisoners" approach to investing.
buying? Remember, I started at $46. Whether BAC will ever get back to that level is debatable but I no longer have a 30 year time horizon to wait.
I am determined not to take a loss on this stock. Yes, it's been dead money even if I get back to even and I lose the opportunity profits as well but I just hate losses.
Just out of curiousity, what would you have done in this situation?
but I guess my simple answer is to put in tight stops, so if something unforeseen happens my downside is limited. Why, it just seems fundamentals don't carry as much weight as they used to. Look at this last correction. Most of the concern deals with all the uncertainty in D.C., then throw in a little Euro sovereign debt, stir in a little Roubini, Dr Doom and Meredith Whitney, yes double dip, no double dip, and voila, fundamentals mean absolutely nothing. CSX and Intel kick off earnings with stellar results, and it seems like it doesn't matter like it used to.
No I don't use options. Just not confident and smart enough, hence the use of stops. No one likes to take losses, and if you sell you have admitted defeat. Although I do invest in some individual stocks, I tend to use ETF's (long and short), so just like your position in XLE, you don't get completely burned by the stupidity of an individual company....see BP.
Let's say fundamentals rule the day. Using BAC, and I had $46K to invest in this stock, and the stock is trading at $46, I wouldn't buy 1000 shares at once. I might buy a quarter position as my starting point. If I truly believe in the fundamentals, and the stock drops 10%, I might add another quarter position. But since Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, I have absolutely no confidence, and definitely not enough information, to trust this market, hence I would have bought 250 shares, and if the stock dropped 10%, I'm out. Of course stop losses mean absolutely nothing when you have a flash crash. Wasn't that fun? NOT!
Trendy no. Just real cautious, real nervous, and confused when one day the experts say everything is fine, and the next day the world is coming to an end. I am trying to wean myself from CNBC when working from home. One analyst says no double dip and has an S&P target of 1300 by the end of the year. Next analyst says we are going to 5000 on the Dow. This shit is repeated hourly. I just turn if off and grab a beer and go back to work.
-- Modified on 7/15/2010 8:41:34 PM