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Jwrags

Aka pwdrhnd
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I think locking a guy like this up for many years is pointless. It helps no one. The Ski Corp. was certainly a victim. He deserves jail time and punishment but what is likely better for society is giving him the opportunity to ultimately get out of jail, get a job, and support his family so they are not on welfare...and make at least some token attempt at restitution.
 

cantunamunch

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He had been on eBay a long time and seemed reputable. The only thing that was a little weird as I said was they didn't use any names. - just initials. As I said, I figure it was some grey market thing rather than outright theft.

See video. Neither Ebay nor Amazon care one tiny bit about triangle scams; their two priorities are completed transactions and selection. Both platforms are de-facto money laundering platforms. And price-sorting customers are complicit in this.

Neither Kastle nor Nespresso want to deal with customer-side issues or returns let alone serial number tracing.
 

teejaywhy

Retired Eccentric
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One thing I will say as a professional reference is this.. The crook/seller seemed to be pretty reliable about delivering the goods they sold dirt cheap on eBay. Mine came pretty quickly and well packaged. It appears they weren't ripping off anyone where eBay or PayPal would get involved to resolve. Only people who weren't happy with them were the people they stole the gear from right? Granted, there's some bad karma associated with the skis now but that's about it.

Yep, it seems like he was a legit seller (of stolen property)
 

cantunamunch

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Anyone have a link that tells what his sentence was? I think he was supposed to get his sentence today.

 

LiquidFeet

instructor
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Thanks. It sounded like the sentence had been publicly released today because of comments in this thread. I did Google for it but couldn't find anything.
 

James

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Do some people in this thread really think this guy deserves a break?
I don’t, but only because prison sentences in this country are absurd. 12 years for some woman in Oklahoma selling $30 worth of pot? Etc, etc.

It would probably be better off for much less jail time for him and structured restitution. His prison sentence will cost like $500k.
 

HardDaysNight

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In his letter to the court asking for a stiff sentence Kaplan makes the statement that Johnson’s theft resulted in his department failing to achieve its budget goals for all the years he carried on his scheme. Consequently employees in that department missed out on bonuses, promotions, etc., for the twelve years Johnson was stealing. What Kaplan doesn’t address is just how incompetent and careless he and other senior executives would have to be to allow this situation to persist for this length of time without, apparently, any meaningful investigation.
 

Wasatchman

over the hill
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Do some people in this thread really think this guy deserves a break?
He doesn't deserve a break but does the punishment fit the crime will be the question. 4-12 years? Look at all these executive white collar crimes? They usually don't get jack as far as prison time and still get to walk away with millions. Wells Fargo execs walk away with millions after egregious behavior and not even really a slap on the wrist.

Nobody usually bitches too much about that stuff but a guy who steals a couple million worth of skis over 12 years is due to get 4-12? I just don't get how unevenly the law seems to be applied to white collar crimes is all.
 

Tricia

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In his letter to the court asking for a stiff sentence Kaplan makes the statement that Johnson’s theft resulted in his department failing to achieve its budget goals for all the years he carried on his scheme. Consequently employees in that department missed out on bonuses, promotions, etc., for the twelve years Johnson was stealing. What Kaplan doesn’t address is just how incompetent and careless he and other senior executives would have to be to allow this situation to persist for this length of time without, apparently, any meaningful investigation.
On a smaller scale, I remember 20+ years ago when an accountant embezzled $300,000.00 at a car dealer in the town were I lived. The amount of $$ was enough that employees weren't able to get their annual raises or Christmas bonuses. That may not seem like a big deal, but it can make a difference in someone being able to feed their family or having to get a second job.
This happened over a 2 year period of time, not 12. I'm not sure how it happens over 12 years. :huh:
 
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crgildart

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The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Bet the "give him a break so he can pay restitution" folks would change their tune if he stole their mother's retirement savings.
 

ScotsSkier

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In his letter to the court asking for a stiff sentence Kaplan makes the statement that Johnson’s theft resulted in his department failing to achieve its budget goals for all the years he carried on his scheme. Consequently employees in that department missed out on bonuses, promotions, etc., for the twelve years Johnson was stealing. What Kaplan doesn’t address is just how incompetent and careless he and other senior executives would have to be to allow this situation to persist for this length of time without, apparently, any meaningful investigation.

Yup! any executive that lets a business unit get away with sub-standard performance for 12 years without making changes at the top should have been fired years ago.... It is a pretty simple business to calculate the costs/revenue on. And also begs the question of what Internal Audit, let alone external audit were doing.
 

Wasatchman

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The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Bet the "give him a break so he can pay restitution" folks would change their tune if he stole their mother's retirement savings.
Put it to you this way. Andrew Fastow at Enron got 6 years. He cost plenty of people retirement money and in some cases wiped out some employees retirement altogether.

@bamaman, the white collar criminal corporate executives often get a sweet deal. That's what your son should go for if he heads in that unfortunate direction.

Like I said, I really don't get how unevenly white collar crime is applied. Stolen ski guy is going to get 4-12 in that context? C'mon man. He might serve more time than Fastow in what I promise will be considerably worse conditions than the country club Fastow was relegated to.

Again, not saying this guy deserves a break but 4-12 years is stiff compared to corporate executive white collar crime.
 
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bamaman

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Not necessarily disagreeing with you @Wasatchman. And don’t worry, my son would never follow that route. But his comment gave me pause to think about it from that perspective. Since this guy is broke now, he must have lived much better off then his employees or most people do.
 

fatbob

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6 years at $400k per year pay ( maybe more grossed up - did he pay full taxes on his eBay trade?). Most law abiding US citizens would take that job. My main question is where the cash has gone? No doubt his family are living in a substantially nicer property than they would otherwise have been and have lived it up more.

Out in 3 on good behaviour and it starts to look like a smart strategy. Not unknown in the ski world of course. Julia Mancuso and Torin Yater-Wallace but 2 whose fathers were hardly clean.
 

Mike King

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