Should Bankruptcy Fraud Be Punished by Death Penalty

Come on folks, to be honest I don’t really think any type of financial fraud should be punished with the death penalty, especially bankruptcy fraud. I mean you can put that individual in prison for as much time as the court decides or even make him pay a million dollars, but why murder? Nope, I never agreed with the existence of death penalty for financial crimes and will never change my mind. If the person had enough creativity to run that scheme that brought a lot of prejudice to the US government he will certainly realize how to pay the bills for his actions. Enough said, let’s better see what other people have to say about bankruptcy frauds and death penalties.

I’ve recently stumbled upon a very interesting article about the imposition of a so called death penalty for filling or committing fraudulent bankruptcy claims. If you want to know more details about the article then follow me till the end. Well basically it was entitled “Hanging Bankrupts” and it can be found on a website called Credit Slips dot org. Just Google that and I’m sure that you will certainly find what you are looking for. However, you should not worry and certainly take a deep breath, because we are going to ramble about a law that only applied in England a long time ago.

So basically according to this amazing history that I’ve managed to read, the laws that had to deal with bankruptcy fraud were quite cruel. So here are the basics that you should know, in case you are a history fan. In 1543, the concealment of assets claim made the one who was bankrupt lose and immediately be deprived of double the value of the property that he or she owned. The laws back then were quite simple. If he refused to surrender, he would have been deemed out from the protection of the king and his property divided, without any hesitation, among his creditors. This aspect that we are talking about here was in vogue until 1604 when the commissioners (actual IRS, he-he) were given the authority to actually arrest those who were bankrupt and refused to surrender. What is even more interesting is that the one who provided a totally false statement of his actions were actually forced to stand in the pillory for approximately three hours and then his left year would be nailed down – simple as that. I assume if such methods would have existed in the 21st century we would be far away from democracy and bankruptcy frauds as well.

However, let’s pass to the actual death penalty for bankruptcy fraud, which was abolished in 1811. What basically happened is that after listening to the testimony of many attorneys and former people who suffered bankruptcy, the committee recommended the House of Commons that it is too cruel for the entire mankind and that some measures should be taken. A decision was taken by which the one who suffered from bankruptcy was convicted to felony and was left alive and with both ears intact! They all agreed that some other more humane, but quite financially difficult punishments can be easily made up.

So what do you think? Is it better to pay at least $250,000 USD or to rest for approximately 5 years in prison? Or would you rather prefer to have one ear cut off and immediately start everything from the beginning? It’s your choice. Please let us know what you consider to be better in the comments bellow. Some people say that it is a lot better in United States nowadays, and to be honest, I agree …