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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?
I'm almost starting to feel bad for the guy...
Ahh, nevermind.
Vendor Trinkets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.