Last year, when Rupert Murdoch paid $580m£312m2m) for MySpace, I was sceptical that he'd got anything substantive for his money.
"One of the avenues that could be pursued - and I wouldn't suggest it with any degree of confidence because it will take substantive effort and money - is that, in the terms of the sales purchase agreement (SPA), the only outside entity that actually has a right of recourse if Mr Whyte defaulted on any of his commitments, is Murray.
Michael Horowitz, another former chief of the public corruption unit in Manhattan, said that it was rare for prosecutors to pursue a structuring charge without a substantive underlying crime like money laundering or drug trafficking.
I also started connecting the dots between the influence of big money on substantive policy issues.
I wouldn't put my money on anything substantive happening, on current trends, by 2015 either.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that because the Palestinians seemed to be slowing down their United Nations membership efforts and because the unity talks with Hamas were more symbolic than substantive, he might release the money in the coming days.
"We're trying to disconnect the raising of money from the substantive act of lobbying -- of persuading the members of the merits of your position -- so that you're arguing on the merits, not because you can raise $50,000 at a lunch the next week," Potter said.
They were charged with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.
Dotcom was held in custody of the New Zealand Police for 33 days and charged with "engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement".
Horton's substantive defence, the judgment said, was that money received into her bank account had been "innocently spent, mainly on day-to-day living expenses".
