Sec Forgives Three Scammers Who Bilked Americans Out of Millions

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

petethomas

160 points

32 comments

msn.comOtherstory

heatednegative

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SecTrumpCorruptionWhite-Collar Crime

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Sec

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Corruption

White-Collar Crime

The SEC under Trump has forgiven three high-profile scammers who bilked Americans out of millions, sparking outrage and concerns about corruption and accountability.

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01Story posted
Sep 24, 2025 at 7:13 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Sep 24, 2025 at 8:44 PM EDT
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19 comments in 2-4h
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Sep 25, 2025 at 12:41 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (32 comments)

Showing 30 comments of 32

tickerticker

3 months ago

2 replies

Hope this doesn't set any kind of legal precedent.

andrewstuart2

3 months ago

I'm not sure legal precedent is much of a concern for this administration.

frogperson

3 months ago

Do you really think laws still matter? Thats an honest question, not rhetorical.

We've seen over and over that laws are applied selectively to reward the in group and punish the out group.

prawn

3 months ago

2 replies

"Among the swindlers are Devon Archer, Trevor Milton and Carlos Watson, a trio of scammers who bilked Americans out of more than three quarters of a billion dollars."

"Archer was Hunter Biden's business partner. After he was caught in his investment scam, he helped prosecutors and congressional Republicans go after President Joe Biden's son."

"Milton is a multimillion-dollar donor to the 2024 Trump presidential campaign and had the wisdom to hire Brad Bondi, the brother of previous Trump lawyer, now-Attorney General Pam Bondi."

"Watson has ties to Trump pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson, recipient of a previous Trump pardon."

Feels like now more than ever, scammers should be made an example of?

thisisit

3 months ago

1 reply

Coffeezilla on YouTube has been covering actions of SEC and other agencies in this administration. Lot of crypto and other scams are being forgiven especially if they have contributed to or somehow related to POTUS. In that small corner of the Internet there is a running meme - Crime is legal under this administration.

roncesvalles

3 months ago

I mean, with all the TikTok ban extensions that are in no way supported by the ban bill, crime is literally legal now. The law is literally in a state of suspension.

JKCalhoun

3 months ago

They kind of are.

Well, not the kind of example you would want.

pwarner

3 months ago

3 replies

The market should fix this, but it doesn't appear to be holding these folks to account.

LocalH

3 months ago

The market only cares about what makes number go up, or what stops number from go up

rimbo789

3 months ago

Markets are very bad at holding people to account for anything

So is this administration. But markets are also bad at it

xnx

3 months ago

The market? Historically this would be more of a mob justice situation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_justice

mandeepj

3 months ago

2 replies

You haven't committed a crime if you've paid homage (bribe) to the orange Emperor, either via campaign donations, bitcoins, or stock purchase, or donation to his presidential library, or even booked a room in one of his hotels for $199. That's how much he has dragged the American Justice System for Sale; F'king Pathetic.

His enablers (Senate/House lawmakers, along with conservative judges) are equal partners in his shredding of values, ethics, and standards of this country.

frogperson

3 months ago

1 reply

This is text book fascism.

Refreeze5224

3 months ago

Woah now, Just because it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, doesn't mean you can you the "D" word. Some ducks might get offended! They might accuse you of fomenting violence like a duck might do!

emchammer

3 months ago

You've left out the option of a golden trophy

bombela

3 months ago

1 reply

Link redirects me to the MSN homepage.

pimlottc

3 months ago

Non-MSN version:

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-m...

kwertyoowiyop

3 months ago

1 reply

At this point, the only way republicans will hear about this (other than republican engineers reading HN) is if a reporter gets on Joe Rogan and talks about it there.

readthenotes1

3 months ago

1 reply

Not even that. The link doesn't work anymore...

pogue

3 months ago

Worked fine for me just a minute ago

samtheprogram

3 months ago

1 reply

Is the article taken down? Clicking the link just goes to a generic list of articles on MSN for me (redirects to msn.com).

Perhaps the link should be changed to the source referred to by a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45368383

asplake

3 months ago

Works for me (iPhone, UK)

aussieguy1234

3 months ago

Committed fraud? If you paid homage to the dictator, no you didn't...

cyanydeez

3 months ago

Someones gotta power the emergent grift growth market

xrd

3 months ago

The lesson here: steal as big as you can.

therobots927

3 months ago

Pay to play

bix6

3 months ago

Disgusting.

ChrisArchitect

3 months ago

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/sec-trump-cle...

pogue

3 months ago

Here's an archived link for those who can't get the article working. It's through MSN, which aggregates other site's pages, so the layout is kind of goofy & you have to click "continue reading" or "skip to content" which might be hidden behind weird ads/JS if you're not using an ad blocker.

https://archive.ph/kovD3

xnx

3 months ago

Previous thread on the Nikola guy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45302220

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