Personally, I view it as more or less an admission of guilt, but I'm sure there are a host of legal reasons to do this (besides actually being guilty) that I am unaware of.
An interesting video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
Having been arrested myself for driving a red car with 2 males inside where the crime happened miles away.
They really, really aren't your friends, repeatedly say yes for a lawyer. Your first arrest will disabuse you of any relic of your childhood "cops are your friends" bullshit.
Any parent who hasn't told you by the age of 17 that cops are not your friends anymore is wildly negligent of their basic duty as a parent. While you live in that wonderful pre-adult age, they are your first call.
But my first thought when I saw this headline was "oh fuck - that's bad"
Emotions are so good at getting in the way of critical thinking. And nowadays I think most people admit that they read headlines first, then comments, and then maybe (but probably not) the story. I wonder how horribly skewed my worldview is because of how I digest information.
The legal system is still run by humans, the normal (very large) margin of error exists.
That's true in theory. In practice, there are few cases where invoking the fifth appears less incriminating than speaking.
As you said, the legal is run by humans, and humans tend to view invoking the fifth as suspicious.
Take a real-life case:
-OJ criminal case for murder, doesn't take the stand (found not guilty)
-OJ civil case for wrongful death, takes the stand gives inconsistent statements/impeached - not regarding anything to do with the case itself but his prior record (found liable)
Yes, the standards are different in civil and criminal but the legal strategy is the same...the defendant doesn't have to do anything, the burden is on the other party to prove their case, and opening yourself up to cross when there are criminal allegations (whether in a actual criminal case or civil case) would be a questionable legal decision. All this is compounded in this Uber case where allegations of (potentially) criminal acts are being made in the civil case because potentially a criminal case may follow, but it does beg the question if this theft of intellectual property is so obvious why hasn't law enforcement brought the charges yet (they in fact may, but see how silence doesn't really indicate anything). FYI, yes in a acquisition Uber likely assumed all liabilities, but that would also generally exclude liabilities as a result of criminal acts.
That's not true at all where the act is done in an official capacity and inures to the benefit of the acquired firm. The entire case is basically that Otto was built upon the founder's stolen tech. If Uber purchased and received infringing and stolen property then they are very much on the hook for all applicable damages, including punitive damages for Otto's egregiously bad acts.
If you are suggesting Uber instructed the Otto founder to steal the tech and set up his own shop to be acquired...then, yes Uber would be liable, and while that may be the theme of the case, if there were any real evidence theft of IP was done as an official act of Uber this would already be settled.
An employer is generally liable for the acts of its employees done in their official capacity (respondiate superior) the employer will not be liable for criminal acts of its employees. That is unless you can find smoking gun evidence the employer instructed the employee to commit the act, otherwise legally criminal acts are outside the scope of official employment and employers are not liable...the same is true of an acquisition, whereas Otto would have expressly stated they own all IP and have authority to sell the same, which would be a breach and potentially void/invalidate the entire acquisition. Either way, If Uber is infringing IP they can be enjoined, but unless it can be shown Uber instructed the Otto founders to steal the IP or knew it was stolen I think they would be indemnified, assuming that's what occurred.
Wouldn't that be a reasonable time to do this?
Disclaimer: IANAL.
EDIT: I'm getting some downvotes, so I will link to this that seems to support what I'm saying:
http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/white_collar...
Perhaps my use of 'falsely' is confusing, but what I mean is if what you are refusing to say is not actually a crime, and it is discovered, you could be charged with a crime (i.e. perjury, giving false statements under oath).
It seems like you're approaching the 5th amendment as a direct point/counterpoint arrangement: the police accuse you of robbing a bank, you know you didn't because you were cheating on your spouse, you can't take the 5th because cheating on your spouse isn't a crime, so you must answer "I couldn't have robbed the bank because I was cheating on my spouse at another location".
But the amendment is much broader than that. Since you don't know what other information the police are attempting to validate or even what crimes they're aware of, you have no way to know if "I was at $hotel with $other_person at $time" may incriminate you in this case or some other case.
However a judge could force you to testify in someone else's case. You can't broadly plead the 5th in that case unless the testimony is incriminating. Let's say you saw a murder happen at a hotel you were at while cheating with your wife. A judge is allowed to force you to answer the question.
The federal definition of misprision requires that, “(1) the principal committed and completed the felony alleged; (2) the defendant had knowledge of the fact; (3) the defendant failed to notify the authorities; and (4) the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the crime of the principal.” See United States v. Baumgartner (6th Cir. Sept. 24, 2014)
(I only know because i am barred in maryland and dc, and virginia was the state that had adultery on the books)
It is unlikely to ever be held constitutional, so in practice, they use it as something to plea bargain to :)