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by n2d4
980 days ago
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Your personal opinion on what "material" means might differ from the court's (and also differs from mine, at least how you phrased it), but I can assure you, a $30bil tax bill is DEFINITELY material. It's a "legal concept" in the same way that every word used in a lawbook is a legal concept; the US is based on case law, and there is a large amount of precedent for this definition in particular. Again, refer to the Wikipedia for some examples. I see this mistake a lot among programmers (also myself at some point). They (we) naturally think law is like a rulebook where you go through a decision tree and then arrive at a perfect conclusion, but the truth is that it's up to the courts to decide on the specifics. And they might disagree on those things with you, and with each other, but in the egregious cases disagreements are rare. |
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Remember that agencies like the IRS, FDA, SEC must not leak a single bit of information (investigation/no investigation). Because that single bit is sufficient to profitably trade on. A hedge fund doesn't need to know the specifics or the exact date of an enforcement announcement in order to make out like a bandit. A tiny amount of signal is sufficient. In fact, a tiny amount of signal is preferred. If a firm knows for a fact that MSFT is in trouble with the IRS they can't trade on it. But if a little bit of information leaks from an agency, that's gold.