>But to be so invested in going after people who maybe paid some officials off or just straight up ignored that law and built their businesses anyway seems like a waste of time. I don't go around outing the people I know who have engaged in illegal activity; it's weird and doesn't help anyone unless there's a victim.
I don't think it's hard to see victims in either case.
If Stripe violated laws to become a payment processor, then the victims are every other founder who would like to start a competing company but can't because they don't have the same political connections as Stripe. And the victims are most downstream founders who are stuck with the pitifully small set of available payment companies like Stripe.
If a company violates its responsibilities as a nonprofit, then it's unfair to US citizens who have a right to audit the financials. And it's unfair to other nonprofits who devote effort to follow the law if other nonprofits are allowed to outperform them by skipping legal responsibilities and making up for it in political connections.
I don't think it's hard to see victims in either case.
If Stripe violated laws to become a payment processor, then the victims are every other founder who would like to start a competing company but can't because they don't have the same political connections as Stripe. And the victims are most downstream founders who are stuck with the pitifully small set of available payment companies like Stripe.
If a company violates its responsibilities as a nonprofit, then it's unfair to US citizens who have a right to audit the financials. And it's unfair to other nonprofits who devote effort to follow the law if other nonprofits are allowed to outperform them by skipping legal responsibilities and making up for it in political connections.