The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap Highlight

How big a crime is a $600 million fraud? If one goes by FBI statistics, the Gen Re defendants’ fraud cost AIG shareholders more in damages than was stolen by all auto thieves in the entire American Northeast in the year 2009, the year after the Gen Re defendants’ convictions. Stealing a car in New York is grand larceny in the fourth degree and typically carries a sentence of up to four years. If the car is worth more, you might get grand larceny in the third degree, which takes it up to seven years. A luxury car worth more than $50,000 might get you as much as fifteen. At the very least, it’s safe to say that a lot of car thieves drew a lot more time than the Gen Re defendants. As one public defender explained it, “Car thefts, they do those by the book.”