As she long is able to dodge criminal charges, I think she got away with a slap on the wrist. A $500,000 fine and returning most of her Theranos equity is hardly proportionate punishment for a supposed-$700M fraud.
Honest question:
I know that plea deals and other rather arcane behind-the-scenes agreements are a thing, but as someone who is not all too familiar with the American justice system, is that really the only relevant difference?
The US has two parallel justice systems. One is civil, the other is criminal. The purpose of the civil justice system is to resolve disputes and amend harms. The purpose of the criminal system is to punish.
Shkreli was charged in the criminal system; Theranos was caught up in the civil system.
You can’t take a plea deal in the civil system because there’s nothing to plead to. You can only settle, which essentially means the parties to the dispute figured out an agreement without the help of the court.
From my limited understanding, he broke the law but was able to return all the funds to investors. So there weren't damages per se, but I think statutory penalties instead.
Okay, interesting. Although it seems a bit strange that this would end up in Washington at the federal level, i.e. Justice Department..
I don't think that they have to deal with just any case of fraud, even big ones. But I could be mistaken.
But if the Justice Department handles this I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing gets kind of, well, political..
Also, this somehow begs the question who brought the charges in Shkreli's case.