May 21, 2012

Obama the Inchoate Kenyan

By Mark J. Fitzgibbons
It is reasonable to believe that someone attempted to commit fraud in a commercial context when Barack Obama's literary agency published that he was born in Kenya. The few known facts seem to provide enough to constitute probable cause to probe whether an unlawful act occurred. Regardless of whether this is probed at law, and depending on what other underlying facts may come to light, there appear to be troubling legal and moral issues involved. The free market depends on honest quid pro quo. Fraud is generally defined as misrepresenting a material fact to induce another person to part with something of value. The quid pro quo between private parties to a transaction need not be equal in the eyes of others, or government regulators, but just fair to the parties to the transaction. It may be of more value to me than to others to acquire what you have or do, so that I may be willing to pay more than the market price.  However, if you were to intentionally deceive me about your...(Read Full Article)