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Bill Gates Fined $800,000 Over Stock Purchases
Bronz writes "CNN Money is reporting that Bill Gates has been fined $800,000 for violating antitrust waiting period for stock purchases. The department alleged that Gates bought more than $50 million worth of stock in ICOS Corp. through his personal investment trust and failed to notify antitrust officials about the purchase, as required." It's also clarified: "The technical incident has nothing to do with the government's massive antitrust battles with Microsoft."
Gee, isn't $800,000 kind of steep? That's almost a staggering one thirty-seven-thousandth (0.00265%) of his current net worth!
http://www.quuxuum.org/~evan/bgnw.html
Where was Mitnick when we really needed him?
"Gates was stymied in his efforts to pay the fine when nobody in the courtroom could give him change for $1 million." /obvious
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
The company makes drugs for erectile dysfunction. I think it's exactly his sort of thing.
How what's he going to wipe his ass with tomorrow morning? Maybe extra windows 95 licences left over or the stolen SCO code.
I'm almost starting to feel bad for the guy...
Ahh, nevermind.
Vendor Trinkets.
Guess he'll have to sacrifice for once in his life...
No new golden toilet bowl seat this month.
-Imidazole2
Well Bill Gates' company does do something "helpful" for the US government (Carnivore, deliberate security back doors). I don't think the government employs Martha Stewart Living in the same light.
MY SECRET DIARIES
DOJ: Sir..
BG Worth: +$1,000k
Gates: Yes???
BG Worth: +$1,000k x 3 secs
DOJ: You didn't fill out some forms
BG Worth: +$1,000k x 10 secs
Gates: How much to pay you off?
BG Worth: +$1,000k x 15 secs
DOJ: 800k
BG Worth: +$1,000k x 2 secs
Gates: Ok
BG Worth: +$1,000k
CNN then reports "In a 30 second conversation Bill Gates made 30 million in interest and paid 800k in fines..."
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I didn't think it was his sort of thing
You sure? We were never able to figure out what he's holding in this picture...
Cheers,
RoadkillBunny
So, $800K does seem to be a bit much.
Well, there's 30 seconds worth of work gone down the tubes....
That's why corporal punishment is so much fairer. . . .
Yeah, and considering I have a net worth of about -$5,000, that would be like giving me 10 cents.
Percentage: confusing Slashdot posters since 1994.
From Marge vs. the Monorail
You just chose the wrong department to file paperwork incorrectly with.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I wish I had enough money to be fined 800k. Wow.
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
What? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is philanthropy in the same way that Oscar Meyer handing out periodic tables with "bolognium"... Wait, that was on the Simpsons. But it's the same thing.
Bill Fucking Gates has to swing by the fucking ATM on his way home.
I think, relative to net worth, I put more in the parking meter this morning.
I wish I had enough money to be fined 800k.
Just go trade a few songs on Kazaa and you'll get a short letter from some nice people. They'll be more than happy to fine you at least that much...
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Well, the islamic system is quite fair in this sense. You steal, they chop off your hand. Only way for this to be unfair is not to have hands, but I guess that would make stealing a bit difficult...
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
I'm not a crook!
I'd write it off as the cost of parking. The trouble are those god damn speeding tickets where you gather enough "points" to lose your license. Fucking nazis.
Listen, admitting potential problems of pure capitalism does not equal communism. Just like anti-trust legislation, inheritance tax exists for the greater good of the country's citizens at large.
Let's just assume that Bill Gates earned all his money through his skills in business and computers or whatever. This large pile of wealth makes him a very powerful person. Is it necessarily in the best interests of our country to have that much power pass on to his kids, just because they happen to be his kids?
I went to college with a bunch of assholes who refused to believe that they deserved anything less than everything they wanted, just because their parents had big bank accounts. And none of them were from billionaire families.
And it's not like the government is going to take all of the money. If they took two thirds of it, there's still billions to be spread around. Some people are going to inherit way more money than I can ever imagine having.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Gates' revenge is that he's going to pay the fine by donating $800M worth of MS software to the US government.
ICOS company profile: "The Group applies its integrated approach to erectile dysfunction" I can't help but wonder how he's going to balance his anti-spam stance with his pro-Viagra II investment.
Open Standards Portal
"The fine... someone gets fined $800k or a million dollars... where does that money go?"
The center of the board, where it waits until Bill lands on the "Free Parking" space again.