Why Does the Manhattan District Attorney Prosecute Small Defendants While Letting Larger Criminals Go?

in #politics6 years ago (edited)

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Most movies don’t make me upset. In general, I don’t get emotionally involved because I feel some distance. However, I’m more involved when I watch the news on television. I’m reacting to it, thinking critically, cheering or complaining, and carrying on a monologue about issues. No one in my family likes to watch the news with me.

I was in “news” mode when I recently watched the movie Abacus: Small Enough to Jail. This documentary film from PBS Frontline, which is available now on video (nominated for an Academy Award and highly recommended), shows the unfortunate prosecution of a family who ran a community bank in New York City’s Chinatown. While the big banks received bailouts in the 2008 recession that they helped cause, this small, family-run bank serving the Chinese-American community became the only bank from that recession to be charged with a criminal offense.

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The Sung family, operators of a small community bank prosecuted by Vance, in the "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" movie.

Abacus had stringent loan standards and it had only 1/10 the default rate on loans that the big banks had. Despite having had one employee who had committed fraud, firing him immediately when they learned of it, and reporting this problem to the government, Abacus Bank was indicted on criminal charges. In the years that followed, the family stood tall as they were publicly shamed and dragged through a horrible prosecution that cost the taxpayers $10 million. The movie asks people not to reveal what happened in the end, so let’s just say it was a total waste of $10 million.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. let the big banks go (they received billions in bailouts from the federal government during the 2008 recession and he had ample time in which to hold them accountable for their damage after his election to the DA job in 2009). But he persisted in trying to take down one bank, ruining the lives of this family that had dedicated themselves to helping unbanked immigrants in New York’s Chinatown get loans, start businesses, and improve their lives. This prosecution was racially insensitive and it was disproportionate to the alleged crime.

I’ve rarely been more upset after watching a movie.

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Prosecutors have a great deal of discretion, so it’s not easy to know when they make a mistake by choosing to prosecute or not prosecute one particular defendant. Cases are more difficult to prove than a layperson like me can know. But Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. has demonstrated a pattern of going after smaller, poorer defendants while the larger ones escape with no consequences for the damage they have caused (and after people associated with them have made payments to his campaigns).

While I like to give someone the benefit of the doubt, this movie finally sealed the deal for me: Vance is a dangerous opportunist. He has not used his office to hold powerful people and companies accountable. Instead he has taken their money in the form of political donations while he’s gone after smaller fish like Abacus.

Vance Had Harvey Weinstein in 2015 and Let Him Go

In 2015, an Italian model named Ambra Battilana Gutierrez reported to the NYPD that she had been sexually assaulted by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Despite having an audio recording in which Weinstein admitted his action (yes, the NYPD had her wired and it’s on tape), Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., declined to prosecute Weinstein. It was not until late 2017 that the floodgates opened and dozens of women came forward to report decades’ worth of rape and sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, one of the most powerful figures in entertainment.

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Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, the woman who reported an assault from him in 2015. Source: Thetimes.co.uk.

As District Attorney, Vance could have stopped this behavior. It didn’t take the New York Times or the New Yorker much investigation at all to find droves of complainants. Vance failed to bring justice and prevent further crimes even though he had a tape of Weinstein admitting what he’d done. Was there a good explanation for why he failed to do so? Not enough evidence, said the DA’s office. And I’d be willing to defer to their wisdom once on something like this if that was the end of the story.

Unfortunately, it’s not. I hope you brought your bribe money.

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Later, it came to light that Vance’s former law partner, who had contributed to his campaign, was a defense attorney for Weinstein. Also David Boies, an attorney for the Weinstein Company, together with his son and his law partners, had contributed a total of $182,000 to Vance’s election campaigns.

Vance Had a Fraud Case Against Baby Trump and Ivanka; He Let Them Go Also

In 2012, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was preparing a case for fraud against Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump, children of the current U.S. president. As Vogue reported, “Ivanka and Donald Jr. narrowly avoided criminal fraud charges in 2012 for allegedly misleading potential buyers at the flailing Trump Soho Hotel—because Vance dropped the mounting case after a meeting with Donald Trump Sr.’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.”

The Trump SoHo project was not going well, but they misrepresented its success in order to con others to buy into it. ProPublica reported that Trump, Jr. had told a real estate publication that 55 percent of the units at Trump SoHo had been sold in April 2008. In June 2008, at an event for the foreign press at the Trump Tower in Manhattan, attended by Eric Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and herself, Ivanka Trump announced to everyone present that 60 percent of the condos had been sold. In fact, the condo was performing badly in a tough market: by March of 2010, nearly two years later, only 15.8% of these condos had been sold.

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Vance's office had a strong case against the Trumps. He dropped it after their attorney apparently bought him off. Screenshot: MSNBC.

But that wasn’t all. Propublica’s report added:
In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.
There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the emails told us. “They knew it was wrong.”

Yes, there are crooks in the White House as well. By now, it should be obvious that the president himself seems to be stuck in middle school. But let’s stick to Vance for now.

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The Manhattan DA’s office had been building this case for two years by 2012 when Cyrus Vance, Jr. decided to end it. As the New Yorker explained, “Vance ordered his prosecutors to drop a promising criminal-fraud investigation against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., who were suspected of misleading potential buyers of condos in the Trump SoHo building; the order came after their father’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, paid Vance a visit. Soon after Vance’s office dropped the investigation, Kasowitz donated and raised a combined total of more than fifty thousand dollars for Vance’s re-election campaign.”

Does that sound familiar? Vance dismissing another case against powerful people when a political donation to his campaign was made. Perhaps it was coincidence and there was a small circle of politically like-minded donors, but given that Vance is a Democrat in New York City who ran unopposed in his last election, it seems unlikely that he was having any trouble raising funds. Again, it stinks of corruption.

Kasowitz later bragged that it was “amazing I got them off.”

Instead, Vance Has Picked on Little Guys

Vance has gone hard after smaller defendants. For example, look how he has targeted people accused of possessing gravity knives. If you don’t know, switchblade knives are illegal in most U.S. states, and gravity knives have a sliding blade that also is capable of being opened with one hand. That makes them dangerous and governments don’t like dangerous. The state of New York has had a law against them. In other parts of the state, people are rarely prosecuted under it, but Vance has made a big point of doing so.

These knives can be used in crimes, but in some neighborhoods, they also are used for self-defense. Guess which neighborhoods those are. Enforcement of this law has had a disparately heavy impact against minorities. In the last 10 years, 70,000 people have been arrested for the possession of gravity knives. Vance has been the only prosecutor in his state who has been persistently bringing charges against these individuals, most from minority backgrounds.

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Here are felony prosecutions for gravity knives in New York City just a 6-month period in 2015, nearly all of them in Manhattan, where Vance is the District Attorney. Source: Creative Commons via Flickr by JV Santore.

At the same time, he has never brought a single case against any of the 100 knife stores in Manhattan, many of which have no doubt been selling these knives to poor people. It’s a familiar pattern: prosecute the little guy and let the money people go free.

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”

That brings us back to the movie I watched about Abacus bank. After the 2008 recession, the big banks were known as “too big to fail”. Some received bailouts from the government after the subprime mortgage mess they helped create. None were ever prosecuted. In the movie, a journalist describes Abacus, this family-owned Chinese-American community development bank in New York’s Chinatown, as “small enough to jail,” which is a play on “too big to fail.”

Abacus Federal Savings Bank is a small community bank located next to a noodle shop. The Sung family started it because they wanted to help immigrants and ‘unbanked’ small businesses in Chinatown gain access to the banking system. This bank helped people get accounts and loans who had never had access to the financial system before. And its loan standards were so tight that Abacus had only 1/10 the failure rate of most banks.

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High praise for the "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" movie.

The movie followed the Sung family as they were brought to trial by Cyrus Vance, Jr.’s office for mortgage fraud and other charges. The bank’s fraud seemed to have centered on one employee who was fired after falsifying documents and accepting bribes, an issue that was remedied and disclosed immediately to the government regulators.

The prosecutors also argued that mortgage documents were improper, but using gift letters was quite common in the Chinese community (as it is in others also). There was a distinct failure to appreciate how the culture operated. Abacus was an easier target than the big banks, which had received a free pass. Vance’s office used the employee who had committed fraud as its star witness and he was caught lying under oath.

This prosecution appeared to be a zealous attempt to take down a bank at any cost and score points with the voters. Perhaps the most galling scene in the movie was when the defendants were publicly shamed by being brought into court in a chain gang, held together in a line of chains, supposedly for security reasons. One insider quoted in the movie said that in 25 years, he had never seen anything like that happen in such a case. This was a total humiliation at the behest of prosecutors who were racially and culturally insensitive towards these respected community leaders.

The whole saga was sickening enough that by the end of the movie, I was angry at the television. And I will tell everyone in New York that if I lived there, I would never cast a vote for Cyrus Vance, Jr. for any political office. Even if you happen to agree with someone’s views or if he has done some other good things while in office, those facts cannot justify choices like these. This guy seems like a real opportunist and I was left to wonder how people in New York can trust him as a public servant.

Abacus is a good movie and I recommend watching it. Here is a short intro to the film.

Sources:

Abacus documentary site: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/abacus/
Business Insider on Weinstein and Trumps: http://www.businessinsider.com/cyrus-vance-harvey-weinstein-audio-trump-2017-10
Contributions to Vance: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/cyrus-vance-contributions-weinstein.html
New Yorker: Why didn't he prosecute? https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-didnt-manhattan-da-cyrus-vance-prosecute-the-trumps-or-harvey-weinstein
NY Times: Vance defends decision: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/nyregion/cy-vance-defends-weinstein-decision.html?mtrref=www.google.com
Vogue article: https://www.vogue.com/article/cyrus-vance-jr-didnt-prosecute-weinstein-ivanka-donald-trump-jr
Wikipedia Vance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_Vance_Jr.
Propublica report: https://www.propublica.org/article/ivanka-donald-trump-jr-close-to-being-charged-felony-fraud
NY Times Review of Abacus movie: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/movies/abacus-small-enough-to-jail-review.html
Marketwatch story on Abacus movie: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-story-behind-oscar-nominated-bank-documentary-abacus-small-enough-to-jail-2018-02-27#false

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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. cannot be feeling too good these days. Source: New York Times.

Top image: Creative Commons via Wikipedia by Saffie55. Handshake images and donkey clip art are public domain from Pixabay and Wikimedia Commons, respectively.

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Because the system is ruled by the elite. I'm from Croatia and we are battling with the same situation. A month back a man that grows marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis got 2 years in jail while a nephew of a politician got probation for having 15kg of marijuana....

What frustrates me the most about this is that we all know this is happening but still don't do anything about it. Selfvoted hoping that you will see this.

A similar case occurs in my country Venezuela.
The government does not think it's from the elite but it is from the worst of the worst in corruption.
While hundreds of people are still imprisoned for protesting against better situations and opportunities for all of us who live here, the country falls apart, the oil resources are stolen and everyone denounces that but for the government nothing happens, everything is part of an economic war. It's frustrating.

Please check out this initiative: Helping Venezuela with Crypto. DavidHay's Mass Adoption Pan. I give a very brief overview of the historical problems that the government has caused, and a HUGE plan that might help the people of Venezuela, as well as crypto.

It is extremely frustrating and disheartening. I hope you and your family are well.

Hopefully @ngans cryptocurrencies could help us all but not all Venezuelans have the correct information about it. The government is trying to take advantage of it through the PETRO but frankly there are more doubts than benefits that we see in this currency. For me it is a new way of diverting the riches of the country to the same small group as always. And thanks for the link I will try to check it calmly.

Yes, these are great points. You should check out his video in the article. He touches on the problems associated with the PetroDollar, and explains that his plan involves setting up offices where he will train people on how to buy, exchange, and use the cryptocurrency. He is a great communicator, with a huge youtube channel. He also has Venezuelan family to whom he sends money via crypto, making him a perfect person to help in this way.

I've been following the situation with Venezuela for a while now, it's very sad to see something like that unfold. The oppression you are facing from your own government for the past couple of years is immense. I don't get it. how far will they go? And how much more can the people take?

The thirst for power is immense @runicar for them the slogan is to keep the people with gifts when reality tells you that with what earned per month minimum wage do not reach to buy the food of the day for a family of three members.
Venezuelans are mostly taking the decision to leave in search of new opportunities in neighboring countries such as Coombia, Peru, Chile or Ecuador, leaving behind family and assets that cost so much sweat. But I do not judge them at some point I will have to migrate since the situation instead of improving, gets worse over time.

Yes. This is a cyclic problem. The more that the currency hyperinflates, the more the government prints to pay off dept. This is a problem that has occurred countless times in history.

The spill over from fleeing Venezuelans is putting additional stress on the neighboring countries. This is a huge issue, which unfortunately not many US or Europeans seem to be aware of.

I'm from Slovenia and can backup runicars comment :) No, seriously. We all have the same problems, when money turns the world around.

... a K.I.D.s prayer was here ...

I think people are doing as much as they can behinf the scenes to stop the elite, but they cannot do it publicly.

Thanks for informing us about this movie. I'll have to watch it. I knew I wanted banks to pay for their crimes against humanity, but not like this.

I didn't realise I could feel sorry for bankers, but after reading what you wrote I think I just did. It sounds like they were some of the "good guys."

I like the title, too. A play on "too big to fail."

It certainly seemed like an overzealous prosecution of a bank who did something very small compared with the big ones that got away.

agreed

Yes, you're very right, and this creepy act keeps corruption living close. You steal a dollar, you go to jail. You steal millions of dollars, then you can bail yourself. All these wrong accusations at times get me very mad at the people in power.

Very nice picture

good informing reply Dear /@lemony-cricket

I don't know if someone has hacked your account, otherwise you're a retard to post that shit on a trending page! Bye Bye Reputation!

Is this a part of the movie. I'm confused.

good writing~ voting it!

Because power corrupts, and those in power usually have checkered pasts so they're easily manipulated.

I have never seen the movie Abacus: small enough to jail . But with the little review you have done on the movie, I can see that it's a great movie and would love to watch it. Is it an old or recent movie?

Speaking about the Manhattan district Attorney , I don't think he is the only one involved in this. They say judges and incorruptible but that's a lie . This is a problem found every where and in every country. Even in mine. The reason they prosecute small defendants and let the big defendants go free is just coz of the amount of influence those with the big cases have.

The Case that I picked interest the most here is the fraud case vanca had against Donald Trump Jr and vanka Trump for inflating the Trump SoHo project Price. Now that was pathetic and from the person who read the mail, they New it was wrong but still went ahead to do it. I really wonder why they were set free.

This is what I call the abuse of power and it is very wrong. But honestly who will bell the cat?

@donkeypong, thanks for the movie recommendation, I'm on my way to download already...

@sistem I can't agree with you more on this. I was sick to the bones on reading this post. Especially where it had to do with the pervert i saw on TV last night- Harvey Weinstein. It is shocking that so many things are pushed under the carpet if you can just bring the money....equality before the law has for so long now become a mirage. The system is getting more unbelievably corrupt by the day. The Trump family isn't even helping matters, yet the commoners are trampled upon without mercy..How exactly did we get here??

We have to do what we can to hold powerful people accountable. Otherwise, as they prove, they are quick to abuse that authority.

Just last month in my State, a private sector owner took three big government shots to court...so so funny when it was announced that the case would be dismissed. As i do not know exactly the procedures and conditions for dismissal, i did not think much about it.

But just last week, there was a big fight between a man and his wife's family(plus the wife) about struggle for some stuff i better not make public here. He had to involve the cops since the fight was getting dirty, and at the end of the day in my bewilderment , the man(the husband) was rather the person jailed, because the wife happens to have wealthy parents that are public figures. He is taking the case to court, and the lawyer representing the wife is her(the wife's) jnr sister. How more dirty could this get?!

Although it feels so discouraging, sometimes we just have to do what we can, because like you said...power intoxicates

hi dear /@sistem
your article is very excellent

Prosecution of a bank having received billions in bail outs vs bank helping unbanked immigrants get loans, start businesses and improve people's lives!!!! How does someone even compare that??
This is pure evil.. A very annoying story from a movie. I do get badly hurt when watching these movies with such stories. These things are truly happening in our world today.
Thanks for bringing up the Weinstein saga.. After all these years, the women that had been sexually abused are getting justice. Yet they even had big proof to pin the culprit Weinstein.
The justice system in all countries is filled with such scenarios. These judges are subject to the same forces as politicians when it comes to bribery.
Though for the judges; it's hard for their opinion to get opposed. This has made the justice system world over so annoyingly corrupt. The judicial system is so broken yet we have no where else to turn to.
It's sad.. but we the poor have no say and we can only fight through the media by talking against these ill practices.

Sounds like an interesting watch, i'll add it to my list.

But by reading your article this just highlights a problem not only present in the United States but throughout the world, money and politics don't get along. You just won't be able to defend your constituents when corporations and criminals are bribing you.

There's a huge need to get money out of politics, when a politician gets financed by a big bank and there's financial troubles, who do you think he will blame? who do you think he will prosecute? attack? the bank that financed him? the company that financed him? no, he will go for the competitor and the smaller the better, because its easier to crush a small business or bank like the one featured in this documentary.

It's sad that there's no easy solution for this, if you make it illegal for public servants to take private money, then they will have to find other ways to fund their campaigns, probably illegal too. There are proponents of making political campaigns funded by the government but that will also anger the tax payers and gives way too much power to the government, who gets the money and who doesn't? It's just too easy to corrupt.

I bet there's someone out there with a blockchain idea to help solve the problem of money in politics, can we make politicians more transparent and accountable if it is required that every campaign fund they get is recorded and audited on a blockchain?

Absolutely and that's a great point. I thought of mentioning campaign finance issues in this post, but it was too long already. It's very important that we do our best to keep politics as free from money as possible. It will never happen completely, but we can get closer to that goal.

Great post..Really loved the amazing information and yes in our world power of rich people is appreciated by everyone in this world and the people who aren't rich those cannot do anything and the police are now days so corrupted that the never caught the big criminal but the caught the fake person who innocent so this the truth of our world and now days it getting bigger and bigger but we cannot do anythings..The world is full of shit but there are also some beautiful thing in world..Thanks for sharing it with us...@donkeypong

I feel like this issue is common place every where in the world as you find those with more influence escape the throng of facing justice while some petty criminals are put to the coffers and made to suffer for every little criminal they commit.

However the issue is not whether you commit little or big offence, the issue is that justice should be meted out equally to any offending party.

I hope humanity wins over this war of injustice before it grows into something elae

It is common. And it should not be tolerated.

Yeah, obviously. But how do you think we can fight it from the back

Is it an elected or appointed position?

Maybe you could run for the position or find somebody to run.

It is so sad to hear that there is two type justice which exist in our world..One is for rich and powerful and second for who is honest and struggling mostly middle class...We talked about the equality and democracy but we are still the state of autocracy indirectly..This world is ruled by capitalist,rich and powerful and people who are hardworking are dominated and harrassed.
I am very sad to hear that the people who worked for the betterment of society had got woth criminal offence and people who did big criminal act and big corruption got away witj respect...Chinese family were doing great impact in the lives of immigrant people by providing loan and helping them to improve their lives...and now they are evicted..But People like Trump and Harvey got away easily by the court without any guilty..Is it our justice system..It is just not acceptable...😠
This is not justice and we should rise voice against it...Otherwise we are killing humanity and justice...It time to change..Every one has right to get justice which our human right!!!
Yes @donkeypong...Real news make us upset rather than movie..but movie are based on real life which sometimes show the real society.

That's true that there are two levels of the justice system.

This is why we are treated differently by the system...Thanks

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