Way off topic
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
3 months ago the U.S. Labor Dept did an audit of my unions bank account. This is a small local union. Only about 200 members. They found $160,000 unaccounted for. The unions treasurer accepted the blame. he stole. He sold his house and repaid the missing money. He resigned his position as treasurer and appologized to the membership. Said that he had a gambling habbit. The company has not done anything to him. He did not cheat them. He is still working. He has been indited by the Labor Dept and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct 5th. He is going to plead guilty. One coworker that has a son who is a lawyer said that he is looking at 1-3 years in jail. I received an email today from another coworker that says he has been a friend for 30 years and is asking the rest of to help him. To give him foregivness. He wants us to plead for liency for him by email. I have known him for 20 years. Our daughters graduated from the same high school during the same year. They knew each other. I have met him socially at union and company events. Not a close friend but a likeable guy. I feel sorry for his family. What an embarasment. There are some at the office that do not believe the gambling habbit thing and think that he just thought that he could get away with it. I cannot support him. Anybody that calls you friend and then steals from you is not a friend.
What would you do?
What would you do?
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25 comments
If you're stealing, you're just like any other common thief. Some thieves are only remorseful if caught. If she was a ROB in a strip club that just stole 300 bucks from you but the manager caught her before she left the club and made her repay you, would you say, "oh, it's no big deal"?
Casinos are required to keep records of wins and losses, especially over $10,000, because they have to report those to IRS, if won or lost within a 24 hour period.
My suggestion is to try and verify if he does have a gaming problem. If so, then give him morale support, especially if he will seek professional help, and since he has repaid all that he stole.
I don't know what 'chitownlawyer' might say, but since this dude has repaid what he has embezzeled, the judge would probably take this in account on his sentencing.
We don't just send people to jail to punish them, a large part of the purpose of jail is to discourage others from doing something similar. And as a general rule I think we're much too lenient with white-collar criminals. Frankly I have a lot more sympathy for a criminal who is poor and uneducated than I do for one who is fairly well off. And yet the poor almost always receive longer sentences for far lesser offences.
All I'm saying is that if I were a judge, found this to be the dude's first felony, no other criminal records, having a gaming problem & was sent to rehab, paid the money back, I would show leniency in sentancing. Being a "felony" class crime, any jail time would have to exceed 12 months. I would place him on 3-5 years probabion; 500 community hours of work; and a fine of $16,000 (10% of what he embezzeled).
chitownlawyer........... give me a hand here would ya' please?
It's all fine to say a thief is a thief is a thief. You can't judge a book by it's cover. He may never steal again. Then again, he may. How can we judge something like that? That's like saying: A smoker is a smoker and always will be a smoker!
I will stand by my "a thief is...". We, as humans, make choices. Those choices we make are based on what we wish to do. If one choose to steal or smoke, they have demonstrated they have the propensity to steal or smoke. From that point on, they are a thief or smoker. That said, can one control their propensity? Perhaps some do, but my bet would be that most don't. Example: I am overweight. I loose, I gain, I loose, I gain... You get the picture, and I think most follow that trend.
But, if I were a presiding judge and knew he had previous counts of embezzlement or thefts, sure I would throw the book at him also. But, as a judge, I wouldn't accept or allow "hearsay" testimony without eye witnesses testifying that he had stolen before.
All I am stating is that there is ALWAYS a possibility that if a person steals once, he/she may never do it again.
You are convinced that once a person sins, he'll be a sinner all his life.
Are you more of an pessimistic thinker than optimistic thinker?
pes·si·mism - 1) A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view; 2) The doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil; 3) The doctrine or belief that the evil in the world outweighs the good.
optimism - 1) A tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation; 2) The doctrine, asserted by Leibnitz, that this world is the best of all possible worlds; 3) The belief that the universe is improving and that good will ultimately triumph over evil.
I never said one couldn't stop stealing, but after one time, they ARE a thief. As shadowcat states, it wasn't a one time thing! I rest my case!
Way off topic 08/31/07 18:55
Posted by: shadowcat [ ignore ]
FONDL: you are totally correct. This happened over a period of months/years.
What I am saying is that, a cashier at a Wal-Mart might steal from his/her cash drawer time and time again, until caught. Once they have been caught, they may not 'steal' again.
Shadowcat: I ain't saying this guy steals everything from everyone. All I'm saying is that NOW he got caught sifting from the funds, might he attempt something like this again in the future? Maybe, maybe not, but rest assured, with this on his record, he'll probably never get a chance to steal again, as who would put him in place of responsibility or access to money? NOONE!
Of course, the old saying "Think, before you act" (on committing a crime) applies. How many times have many of us "acted before thinking" at a club and licked a bare pussy or stuck our 'unprotected' dicks up a pussy? LOL