SEC forgives three scammers who bilked Americans out of millions
25 comments
·September 24, 2025samtheprogram
Is the article taken down? Clicking the link just goes to a generic list of articles on MSN for me (redirects to msn.com).
Perhaps the link should be changed to the source referred to by a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45368383
prawn
"Among the swindlers are Devon Archer, Trevor Milton and Carlos Watson, a trio of scammers who bilked Americans out of more than three quarters of a billion dollars."
"Archer was Hunter Biden's business partner. After he was caught in his investment scam, he helped prosecutors and congressional Republicans go after President Joe Biden's son."
"Milton is a multimillion-dollar donor to the 2024 Trump presidential campaign and had the wisdom to hire Brad Bondi, the brother of previous Trump lawyer, now-Attorney General Pam Bondi."
"Watson has ties to Trump pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, recipient of a previous Trump pardon."
Feels like now more than ever, scammers should be made an example of?
JKCalhoun
They kind of are.
Well, not the kind of example you would want.
xnx
Previous thread on the Nikola guy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45302220
tickerticker
Hope this doesn't set any kind of legal precedent.
frogperson
Do you really think laws still matter? Thats an honest question, not rhetorical.
We've seen over and over that laws are applied selectively to reward the in group and punish the out group.
andrewstuart2
I'm not sure legal precedent is much of a concern for this administration.
bombela
Link redirects me to the MSN homepage.
xrd
The lesson here: steal as big as you can.
therobots927
Pay to play
mandeepj
You haven't committed a crime if you've paid homage (bribe) to the orange Emperor, either via campaign donations, bitcoins, or stock purchase, or donation to his presidential library, or even booked a room in one of his hotels for $199. That's how much he has dragged the American Justice System for Sale; F'king Pathetic.
His enablers (Senate/House lawmakers, along with conservative judges) are equal partners in his shredding of values, ethics, and standards of this country.
emchammer
You've left out the option of a golden trophy
frogperson
This is text book fascism.
aussieguy1234
Committed fraud? If you paid homage to the dictator, no you didn't...
cyanydeez
Someones gotta power the emergent grift growth market
At this point, the only way republicans will hear about this (other than republican engineers reading HN) is if a reporter gets on Joe Rogan and talks about it there.