Crime pays...

[granny]

...long as you do it big.

Sotheby's found guilty of defrauding art dealers of £290m, fined 20m euro's (what's that, about £14m?) so they still made illegal profit of well over £200m? WTF's the point of such a tiny penalty?

 

[prime1]

They probably looked at certain works of modern "art" and thought that the "art" dealers deserved everything they got.


But yes it is rather silly.

 

[dysfunction]

Well they are a respected company

And I'm sure they pay loads of tax on that profit....

 

[xane]

Fines are not supposed to wipe out profits, in any case, the former Chairman is already in jail and together with Christies they are facing a huge court settlement with all the art dealers they mugged.

Why impose a fine that sends the company into bankrupcy when they are already making reparations ? You'll only hurt those trying to get their money back.

Also remember that fines reflect badly in the financial rating and the share price, that will cost them a lot more.