Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor of distinction, has written an important column for National Review Online, laying out what would happen to a corporate executive who behaved as President Obama has, selling an insurance product. I laid out the case that Obama was guilty of fraud late last month, but McCarthy's expertise and careful explication are of a much higher level.
The entire article deserves to be read in its entirety. But here is a sample:
Fraud is a serious federal felony, usually punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment - with every repetition of a fraudulent communication chargeable as a separate crime. In computing sentences, federal sentencing guidelines factor in such considerations as the dollar value of the fraud, the number of victims, and the degree to which the offender's treachery breaches any special fiduciary duties he owes. Cases of multi-million-dollar corporate frauds - to say nothing of multi-billion-dollar, Bernie Madoff-level scams that nevertheless pale beside Obamacare's dimensions - often result in terms amounting to decades in the slammer.Justice Department guidelines, set forth in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, recommend prosecution for fraud in situations involving "any scheme which in its nature is directed to defrauding a class of persons, or the general public, with a substantial pattern of conduct." So, for example, if a schemer were intentionally to deceive all Americans, or a class of Americans (e.g., people who had health insurance purchased on the individual market), by repeating numerous times - over the airwaves, in mailings, and in electronic announcements - an assertion the schemer knew to be false and misleading, that would constitute an actionable fraud - particularly if the statements induced the victims to take action to their detriment, or lulled the victims into a false sense of security.
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