Each quarter I write a check to the Government for my tax bill. It’s a big check. I won’t go into specifics, but it’s many, many times more than $500. On top of that, the State of California charges me $800/year just to be in business, and my local city charges me an additional $60.

So what happens to a (now ex-) TSA agent who’s caught with his pants down running a prostitution ring? He simply has to pay a $500 fine.

The Maryland Gazette reports:

A former security manager at Dulles International Airport was given a $500 fine last week for running a prostitution ring out of his Silver Spring hotel room in February.

Bryant Jermaine Livingston, 39, of Manassas, Va., was arrested during a training session at Dulles on March 16, four weeks after Montgomery County police were called to his hotel room in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 8777 Georgia Ave., in Silver Spring on March 16, according to charging documents.

Livingston was charged with four counts of general prostitution. He pleaded guilty to and was convicted of one count at trial Thursday in Montgomery County District Court.

Jason W. Cleckner, Livingston’s private defense attorney, declined to comment on the verdict Friday, citing an agreement he made with Livingston not to discuss the case.

The maximum penalty for prostitution is one year in prison and a $500 fine, according to Maryland law. If Livingston violates his probation before June 2013 he could serve up to a year in jail, according to court documents.

Does that seem fair to you? I think he’s getting a sweet deal! Imagine if your business could get away paying a $500 fee every now and then, instead of taxes, license fees, and incorporation fees? I’m in the wrong business. I should have been a TSA Officer.

See our previous coverage of this story.