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The inequity of equal sentences in federal court
By adamg on Sat, 08/13/2016 - 1:01pm
Two men got two-year prison sentence in federal court this week. Ismael Morales,, a janitor at the Roxse Homes project, got his sentence for taking bribes to move people up the waiting list there. Edward Tuntunjian, charged with employing illegal aliens, some of whom he helped get federally subsidized apartments, and hiding millions of dollars in salaries, also got a two-year sentence - and the city let him transfer ownership of his cab medallions to his wife.
Matt Connolly ponders why Tuntunjian was not treated more harshly than Morales.
One guy is a multi-millionaire setting up a system that has defrauded the taxpayers of countless amount of money over the years and the other makes less than ten grand helping people jump others in rent control housing. The poor guy gets slammed while the rich guy may walk.
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Comments
Great point Matt
Even when they get convicted they get sent to club fed and work on their tans and tennis games while the poor get sent to prison and hard times.
The transfer is weird
like, is there any valid reason this was accepted as being fine? Does the city not have the right to revoke medallions based on malfeasance or other criminal acts? As it's being reported, it sounds like the city just didn't want to inconvenience the guy by forcing his family to divest valuable assets.
Real question is
Why did both of those grifters only get two years?
Medalions are a commodity
Taxi medallions are a property that can be purchased and sold. The city can oversee transfer and grant new ones but it is treated much like a house or other commercial property. They cannot just take it away from someone, at least not easily, no more than they can take a home from a person without specific due cause and court proceedings which would be Separate from this case.
Selling a medallion carries a high price tag in the vicinity of $300-thousand on average in this city, so when someone gets a medallion it is likely it is mortgaged to the bank and the guy is making payments on it each month much like on a house.
Most owners of taxi medallions do not affix them to their own taxis, but lease them to a person or company, much like leasing a home. The lease pays for the bank mortgage and also provides extra to the owner, so it is like leasing a house as income property.
If the medallion owner does operate his own taxi company, it is likely that each taxi is individually incorporated and insured as a stand-alone business. In the old days large taxi companies would have multiple medallions but if one taxi was in an accident, they could be sued for millions and risk putting the whole company out of business. So taxi operators got wise to this risk of being sued out of business. By individually incorporating each vehicle as its own company (note the small ownership text on each taxi) if the vehicle has an accident and it is sued, the owner only is at risk of losing one vehicle and one insurance policy rather than a whole chain of them.
this makes for more paperwork at the end of the day and mucho-paperwork at tax time but it has become a cost of doing business.
It is unlikely he will do any serious jail time and for the "white collar" crime involved it is likely the city will move to hit him in the wallet. He may be forced into selling some medallions to pay off the fines and he may have some restrictions on owning future ones.
I am reminded of a bus and limo company I hired once that stiffed me and cost me over $3K. I went to court and the guy never showed. Over time he kept going out of business as one corporation and starting up as a new one and kept just ahead of the people he was stiffing for money. This went on for about 3 years and it eventually became too costly for me to pursue this guy with time out of work, cost of bench warrants to be served, etc. I eventually had to give up and take the bath before I spent as much as I was trying to get back, and still risking never collecting anything..
At last check he is still in business under about a 4th or 5th name.
Unfortunately, the law is written to allow this but was never meant to be abused this way
And so it goes.
Thanks!
V informative
I have no problem with
Tutunjian's wife getting the medallions...as long as the cap is removed.
Maybe the difference in punishments was because one guy interfered with housing, which everybody needs, and the other guy interfered with private car transportation markets, which have public competition. Maybe I'm naive.
In any case, vote Democrat again. They love things like housing projects with waiting lists and artificially capped transportation services. Plenty of opportunities for dominion seeking and graft.
Yes, Will, we get it.
Republican Uber Alles.
On a national level
Hell no. That (expletive) Mike Pence doesn't belong anywhere near elected office. On a local level, why not?
D vs. R
Because Republican policies favor fat cats and oligarchs (in general) and Democratic policies favor the poor and working class (in general). It's basically the same reason that -- if I had to choose -- I would object less to the corruption of Mr. Morales (see above) than that of Mr. Tuntunjian (see above). Let me hasten to reiterate that I'd rather have neither.
Democrats favor the poor?
BAHAHAHAHAHA. Did you just say that with a straight face? Yep, Hillary is going to dedicate her campaign to stopping those big, bad, predatory banks who pay her $300,000 to talk for an hour.
I'm in the working class. Obama raised my taxes. You're going to tell me that a party which treats people like ATM's "favors the poor?" GTFOOH!
Other states Republican governors and legislatures
So you'd be interested in a state government run by Republicans, like Wisconsin, Kansas, Texas, or North Carolina currently has. Is that right?
We have that now
And he's largely stayed out of the way...which is precisely what I want from government.
Scott Walker is an (expletive). Greg Abbott is an (expletive), although he was a cool one-hit wonder. North Carolina can fall into the ocean for all I care.
New England Republicans = good
Non-new England Republicans = awful
Sentencing Guidelines
Federal judges do not just play Solomon with prison sentences. They, and the prosecutors, use sentencing guidelines that are based on formulas and various weighted factors. They are publicly available on line and very complicated. Rich and poor has nothing to do with it. I am not surprised at the two year sentences for either of them, as the charge against the cab guy was based on fairly minor federal infractions. He did a lot of things that were morally wrong (as well documented by the globe) but that are not federal crimes. The transfer of the taxi medallions to the wife by the city strikes me as very odd and if the cab guy cannot pay his fines from other assets you can bet the USAOs asset forfeiture division will pursue that as a fraudulent conveyance.
What?
So one guy gets ineligible people in public housing while they work illegally for him and he avoids paying taxes and the other guy took bribes to get ineligible people into public housing. One is breaking more laws than the other but both get 2 years. I didn't know the federal laws don't include hiring illegal aliens and tax evasion.
Big caveat
Federal guideline sentences are no longer mandatory. In United States v. Booker the Supreme Court declared that the guidelines may not be mandatory. They are still used as guidelines and in an advisory capacity. But they are not mandatory.
Various factors are considered in determining the sentence. Possessing the kind of character that Dante would recognize in Hell is not one of those considerations.
I think Mr. Connolly has pointed out numerous
deficiencies in the application of law and prosecutorial discretion by the US Attorneys office. These cases are examples of people who bring little headline value. Thats of no use to Carmen Ortiz. Getting good PR in the Globe is what will bring you the most post federal career money and prestige. So Monday morning be prepared for the bla bla bla boxed lunch defense from Ms. Ortiz media person.
Tuntunjian had better lawyers
Tuntunjian is particularly odious for getting illegal aliens into the limited number of federally subsidized apartments, usually with waiting lists, for American citizens.
Prison Sentences
1. Federal judges follow the law and sentencing guidelines. It's not a matter of somebody's personal morality code.
2. This topic is not remotely related to the Presidential election.
3. Why is either case in federal court rather than a state or county jurisdiction? (Why are not the offices of Suffolk County DA or Mass. AG prosecuting these cases, which seem to be restricted to the City of Boston?)
Also....
Do we know if there were any pleas? Also, one worked for the government, while the other didn't. Government workers who take bribes usually get hit harder than your common white collar thief.
Here we go
I'm sure it's racial. Isn't it always?