Yeah, so the fraud is okay, right? Everybody made money from the fraud, therefore nobody was harmed! Fraud can't be illegal if everybody involved wins!
—Trump's lawyers' actual defense strategy.
These people went to law school, and clearly did not get their money's worth.
Also, "everyone commits crime but only our client is being held accountable. These is egregiously biased!"
This is the equivalent of switching price tags so that your $100 LEGO set rings up as $1, and then saying "but we paid for it!"
Fuck the Trump crime family
All while using a stolen credit card (fraudulent loans) to buy it.
Also, you turn around and sell that $1 ring to someone else for $100. And you tell everybody it's a $300 ring, so they think you have more money than you do.
Yours and mine combined is essentially what happened.
Yes, they actually made money from Trump. They were lucky, because he cheated them on the risks involved. If Trump had failed, thousands of other customers would have had to bear the costs.
It's like when that dude crossed this bridge game in which he had to hop on separated blocks, but he was tethered to this cable in case he fell. Except that when he crossed to the other side, whoops, the tether was not locked.
Had he plunged to his death instead, he, and everyone else watching, would have had a bad time.
If I steal $20 from a friend, buy lottery tickets with the cash, win $1,000, and then give them back $30, does that erase the fact that I stole $20 from them? Of course not. Just because you return the money you stole with some extra doesn't mean that you didn't commit a crime in obtaining that money.
In Trump's case, the banks might have made money, but he still got the number using fraudulent means. Whether or not the banks profited is immaterial. He committed fraud when he told the banks that his properties were worth more than they actually were. That's when the crime occurred. Any "but later they got their money back plus more" doesn't exonerate him from the crime.
Absolutely. Also, since Trump's lies lowered the interest rate he paid for his loans, as intended, the bank made less than they would have if they'd been given accurate data.
So in your example, where you stole $20 and paid back $30, your friend only made $10. If you hadn't stolen that money, though, he could have invested it and maybe made himself $40, so he's still out $10.
And the issue is that the $20 thief will be compelled to do it again, and again, and again. And not every time they'll make money to give back.
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