Somebody took Orwell's quote about political language seriously. Craig Berkman, the former head of the Oregon Republican Party who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994 was sentenced to prison for six years after being convicted of fraud for telling investors he had access to shares of Facebook before its IPO in 2012. He had told investors he would use their funds to buy pr-IPO shares in tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Groupon, and instead used it to pay off other investors and his own personal expenses. The sentence is less than the 97 months suggested by federal sentencing guidelines.
Read it at Reuters
