14 January 2025

by David Arthur Walters

Luigi Mangione’s elevation to folk hero status for his cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson in New York on 4 December 2024 has exposed a major fault in our criminal law system, that negligent corrupted private and public officials can defraud the public, harm and even murder countless sick and injured people dependent upon them with impunity.

Mr. Thompson was the unfortunate accountant who ran the subdivision of UnitedHealth Group headed by Sir Andrew Witty, who allegedly “oversaw” GlaxoSmithKline’s so-called Hall of Shame when it was fined $3 billion for perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in world history, leaving major media to question if such relatively small fines are effective in curbing crimes against the unwitting public, including illegal marketing, corruption, bribery, collusion, contaminated drugs and the like misdeeds.

Crime comes natural to our race. We are not surprised to hear that the power elite get away with crime while their lessers go to prison. Yet there comes a time when concessions should be made to forestall assassinations and revolution. Mr. Magione killed a rather minor figure in the scheme. He could have gone after Sir Witty, whose annual compensation is twice that of Mr. Thompson’s $10 million. And, instead of respecting the police power, he might have summarily executed some representative public official, for, after all, the deliberate lack of regulation led to the massive insult to the well being of society.

What can be done to deter this kind of crime against society? An honest and diligent government would, for instance, provide financial support for whistle blowers and use the law prohibiting corrupt racketeering organizations to go after the fraudsters.

Even better, legislation should require that the perpetrators of crimes with serious consequences, such as the outcomes suffered by thousands of beneficiaries from the delay and denial of relief due to them, should suffer the death penalty, for those officials and executives are, in effect, mass murderers and batterers. The death penalty could be suspended for two years, with good behavior resulting in a life sentence.

The Seed That Fell on Rocky Ground

Image: Franz Kafka, Esq. dealing with absurdities. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2016/03/24/with-andrew-wittys-departure-will-glaxosmithkline-say-goodbye-to-fraud/