NY financial adviser gets prison for scamming clients

At what point will the U.S. justice system stop recommending prison sentences for almost any and all infractions within the financial sector. I am not condoning this person's alleged crime but this activity is a daily event in the U.S. and is seldom front page news within other countries...meaning, other countries do not seem to be such an extreme oriented and subjugative type governments.

You're kidding, right? This person has taken the fruits of many lives hard worked. Dreams - gone. College money - gone. Retirement - gone. Prison terms are for keeping the victims from rendering more appropriate justice. 15 years is 15 years too short. You can no longer say alleged, either: he's convicted.

According to these standards most businesses are guilty of something wrong, car salespeople will encourage you to buy a car you really can't afford, a doctor an operation you really don't need, a lawyer a case you really can't win, a politician whatever will get your vote, encouraging is part of sales. BUYER BE AWARE is the game. Greed is the reason someone would take such ludicrous chances with their life savings, their childrens education funds, etc... Who is responsible for the other person's greed?

Life's two biggest motivators are fear and greed. Greed would prevail in all cases if fear were not its occasional counterpart. Yes, investors should be wary and conduct due diligence before investing. Says so on the prospectus.

Yes, buyer beware. However, implicit in all interactions is a degree of trust that is, in fact, reliant upon regulatory oversight because of this very type of human behaviour. It's too bad that we need government oversight to control theives but they just don't seem to be very self regulating. Sounds like patricia25 either doesn't distinguish between encouraging and lying or is fine with her slick car salesman (and I am too, for that matter. If you can't figure out how much car you can afford, you're in need of a friend to help you buy one. On the other hand, if the salesman covers up material negative history about the vehicle, put him/her back into the same category); her malpracticing doctor and lawyer and her pandering politician. I believe we should weed them out with expensive law suits, jail time for the egregious and fewer votes next time around. Otherwise, let's all just do what we want, when we want and depend on large private militias to help us keep our bounty. That's not where I want to live. Is honor, truthfulness and integrity so diminished in our society that we act as if the only recourse to deceit and treachery is our own perpetration of same? Or does our own desire to gain at any expense help us rationalize the cowardice and unwillingness of others regarding earning money the old fashioned way, by working. Either way, how disappointing to surmise.