Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.; The New York Times, November 29, 2025

Kenneth P. Vogel, The New York Times ; Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence 

David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.

"President Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims.

David Gentile, 59, a onetime resident of Nassau County, N.Y., had reported to prison on Nov. 14, and was released on Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records and a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Gentile and a co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May. Unlike a pardon, the commutation granted to Mr. Gentile will not erase his conviction. 

Mr. Schneider, who was sentenced to six years, does not appear to have received clemency from Mr. Trump...

Mr. Trump has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to forgive an array of white-collar crimes and to make political points, including by casting prosecutions of his supporters as corrupt witch hunts like those that he claims had targeted him.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Gentile had connections to Mr. Trump or to the president’s supporters."

Elon Musk’s X Is Now Worth Around A Fifth Of The $44 Billion He Paid For It, Fidelity Says; Forbes, September 30, 2024

Ty Roush , Forbes; Elon Musk’s X Is Now Worth Around A Fifth Of The $44 Billion He Paid For It, Fidelity Says

"Elon Musk’s X is worth a little more than one-fifth of the $44 billion he paid to acquire the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, according to Fidelity, the latest in a series of valuation cuts by Fidelity since Musk’s takeover in 2022...

Musk is the wealthiest person in the world with a fortune valued at $269.8 billion, according to our latest estimates...

$24 billion. That’s how much the eight largest investors in X have lost in combined value since Musk purchased the firm as of Sept. 1, according to the Washington Post."

Facebook Privacy Scandal Unleashes Nationwide ‘Litigation Swarm'; Bloomberg, April 4, 2018

Christie Smythe, Bloomberg; Facebook Privacy Scandal Unleashes Nationwide ‘Litigation Swarm'

"Litigation Swarm

"Facebook’s having to fight on multiple fronts, with potentially conflicting strategies and obligations, is what will make this ‘litigation swarm’ problematic," said Marc Melzer, a New York-based attorney. The company will likely "want to move slowly and withhold as much as they can without antagonizing regulators or the courts that are presiding over the suits."

Users and investors have filed at least 18 lawsuits since last month’s revelations about Cambridge Analytica. Beyond privacy violations, they are accusing Facebook of user agreement breaches, negligence, consumer fraud, unfair competition, securities fraud and racketeering.

Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and board members including Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel face additional claims from shareholders for allegedly failing to uphold their fiduciary duties and wasting corporate assets."

Tech's biggest companies are spreading conspiracy theories. Again.; CNN, February 21, 2018

Seth Fiegerman, CNN; Tech's biggest companies are spreading conspiracy theories. Again.

"To use Silicon Valley's preferred parlance, it's now hard to escape the conclusion that the spreading of misinformation and hoaxes is a feature, not a bug, of social media platforms -- and their business models.

Facebook and Google built incredibly profitable businesses by serving content they don't pay for or vet to billions of users, with ads placed against that content. The platforms developed better and better targeting to buoy their ad businesses, but not necessarily better content moderation to buoy user discourse."

The day of Trump toilets and condoms in China may have just ended. Here's why that's controversial; Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2017

Jessica Meyers, Los Angeles Times; 
The day of Trump toilets and condoms in China may have just ended. Here's why that's controversial

"Could Trump benefit from the decision?

Some analysts believe investors, wary about the delicate relationship between China and the U.S., will veer away from anything bearing Donald Trump’s name. But two chief ethics lawyers under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama argue China could still use Trump’s ties to his family empire to influence policies.

They’re part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York that alleges the president’s foreign business connections violate the Constitution.

“We should be seriously concerned about Mr. Trump’s ethical standards,” [Haochen] Sun [director of the Law and Technology Center at the University of Hong Kong and a specialist in intellectual property law] said. “The registration carries the message that Trump is still doing business.”

Corporate Ethics In The Era Of Millennials; NPR, 8/24/16

Paul A. Argenti, NPR; Corporate Ethics In The Era Of Millennials:

"Corporate social responsibility has been added to the growing list of demands that investors, customers and employees present to companies.

In 2015, 81 percent of Fortune 500 companies published sustainability reports, up from 20 percent in 2011, according to a report released by the Governance & Accountability Institute in June. Companies are publicizing their ethical standards and responsibility efforts, and consumers are punishing companies that appear to fall short. Even as headlines proclaim "greed is back," companies are investing time and resources into instituting more ethical practices."

What Silicon Valley's billionaires don't understand about the first amendment; Guardian, 5/27/16

Nellie Bowles, Guardian; What Silicon Valley's billionaires don't understand about the first amendment:

"No major American cultural force is more opposed to examination and more active in suppressing it today than Silicon Valley. So when it was revealed this week that Facebook board member Peter Thiel had been secretly bankrolling a lawsuit to inflict financial ruin on the news and gossip site Gawker, Silicon Valley cheered...

Each of these investors – and many of those writing in a wave of local support for Thiel – add caveats that they’re happy to see “clickbait” or “gossip” journalists suffer but that they fully support “real” journalists. As Khosla made clear by putting the New York Times on the side of clickbait, many Silicon Valley investors see most press as suspect.

After six years as a reporter in Silicon Valley, I’ve found that a tech mogul will generally call anything unflattering I write “clickbait” and anything flattering “finally some real journalism”."