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Comment by Alex63 | Hacker News Reader

Monsanto's punishment was an $80M settlement. The $22M was just the reward to the whistleblower.

Monsanto posted a gross profit in 2015 of $8 billion [1]. I doubt losing 1% of their earnings for a single year qualifies as being "screwed".

[1]: http://www.monsanto.com/investors/documents/2015/2015.10.06_... - "Gross Profits: $8,182 M"

edit: accidentally a word

God. Put it in those terms and it feels like the punishment for corporate tax fraud is a parking ticket.

Even worse, it's just written off as a cost of doing business.

It's for accounting improprieties, not a drug hustle. The fine is proportional to the crime. Even if we charged $800 million for this, would we charge $800 million for them not having a handicapped parking space at one of their offices?

Comparing to overall profits is counterproductive and dishonest. The punishment should fit the crime.

Fraud is a serious crime. Much worse than selling drugs in my opinion.

Comparing to overall profits is necessary when the discussion is about whether the penalty financially screws Monsanto's shareholders over. Nowhere in the parent thread is there a discussion going on about whether this is an appropriate penalty, just whether or not it "screws" Monsanto - in the context of their 2015 earnings statement, it's obviously not.

Are you really claiming that an $80M settlement is a "screwing" for Monsanto? I'd call it a "Blip".

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