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Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

theguardian.com

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Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#81

Post by potato3732842 »

nitwit005 wrote: post #59
mattmanser wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK they heavily discourage even the £50 note (roughly €60/$63). We basically only use 5/10/20. Most shops won't take them and cash machines don't give them out. Which is pretty odd now given how high inflation got here for the last few years. Here's an article from 5 years ago saying that £50 notes were widely regarded as just used by criminals. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48993008

The same attitude is present in the US. You can occasionally find signs in stores in the US indicating they won't accept bills larger than $20: https://www.amazon.com/SmartSign-V-shaped-Businesses-Restaur...

It's always a lie though. You can't realistically start a register out with less than $100 of change for a few hour shift. Maybe $50 for really short shift or if there's a manager with safe access who can reload it.

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#82

Post by bbwbsb »

javajosh wrote: post #20

There needs to be a word for when someone does something bad in their own interest, and as a result the wider society degrades far more than the individual profited. Corrupt anti-corruption officials, yes, but also college professors issuing passing grades to customers, er I mean students, news networks that give in to the urge for sensationalism and ideologically driven attention, lawyers who escalate conflict for p…

These are positive feedback loops. Perhaps "anti-social runaway" would be a good description.

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#83

Post by teractiveodular »

pessimizer wrote: post #60
ryandrake wrote: post #15

How does one even expect to use €20M of physical paper cash? You're going to get scrutiny from the government and/or financial institutions if you try to deposit it into a bank. I guess you'd "launder" it somehow, but does that even work anymore? Major purchases with cash put a giant government bullseye on your back these days. That is if you could actually make those purchases. I'd imagine most major purchases that…

Start a car rental company by buying a bunch of luxury cars. Drive two or three yourself, and let your friends and family drive them. Once the cash is clean, sell them and close the business. All you need to do is make sure you have an actual phone number that someone can call to rent a car, and make sure your prices are outrageous. Give the job of answering the phone to your sister's kid, or your girlfriend.

This is literally what our Fraud Chief did.

> "Part of the money Sánchez Gil amassed in recent years was laundered through the purchase of crypto-currencies and a large fleet of private hire vehicles registered in the name of one of his relatives"

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#84

Post by dgfitz »

krisoft wrote: post #73
defrost wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part they likely obfuscated for reasons of both brevity and not wishing to give a blueprint to wanna be criminals is also having a stake in the other businesses that invoice for the fake expenses. eg: Your (say) hotel | bar falsely inflates customer income and then spends the illegitimate cash (supposedly from customers that don't exist) on rennovation works and "new" carpets, plumbing, etc that don't exist - the…

I don’t understand the scheme you are describing. If you have a hotel/bar and you falsely inflate the customer income then you are done. The previously illegitimate cash is now legitimate. Why would you want to complicate it more with the fake rennovation works? Especially when a hotel is so much easier. You can just put fake guests on the book. (Or report longer stays for your real guests.) With the renovation busin…

Nah I get it. If 100% of a hotel clientele only ever pays in cash, are you really any better off?

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#85

Post by cafard »

nitwit005 wrote: post #59
mattmanser wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK they heavily discourage even the £50 note (roughly €60/$63). We basically only use 5/10/20. Most shops won't take them and cash machines don't give them out. Which is pretty odd now given how high inflation got here for the last few years. Here's an article from 5 years ago saying that £50 notes were widely regarded as just used by criminals. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48993008

The same attitude is present in the US. You can occasionally find signs in stores in the US indicating they won't accept bills larger than $20: https://www.amazon.com/SmartSign-V-shaped-Businesses-Restaur...

Citibank ATMs will happily give you $100 bills if you don't specify otherwise. I prefer $20s, as less inconvenient for the store clerks.

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#86

Post by krunck »

chairmanwow1 wrote: post #49
sneak wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refuse to patronize places that are card only. Not everyone can use electronic payments. New York and some other cities actually made it illegal, as it's discriminatory.

How on earth is requiring card payments discriminatory? Providing cash payment options is absolutely not free and implies extra risk on behalf of the business. Refusing to take part in the banking system is not worth penalizing businesses for. Let the free market work.

The reality is that cards can impose very high fees and businesses spread that cost out onto card AND cash payers. Card companies stipulate in the contract with the business that they CAN NOT charge extra for card transactions to cover the fees. That is why you see businesses offering discounts if you use cash.

The Visa/Mastercard cartel has too much power.

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#87

Post by faggotbreath »

sneak wrote: post #58
chairmanwow1 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How on earth is requiring card payments discriminatory? Providing cash payment options is absolutely not free and implies extra risk on behalf of the business. Refusing to take part in the banking system is not worth penalizing businesses for. Let the free market work.

It's not possible to get a bank account in the USA if: 1- you are on the secret unaccountable banking blacklist 2- you lack proper identity documentation 3- you are a fugitive from justice Without a bank account, you can't get a payment card, and, in a cashless world, you can't buy food.

[dead]

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#88

Post by emmelaich »

ano-ther wrote: post #63
ryandrake wrote: post #15

How does one even expect to use €20M of physical paper cash? You're going to get scrutiny from the government and/or financial institutions if you try to deposit it into a bank. I guess you'd "launder" it somehow, but does that even work anymore? Major purchases with cash put a giant government bullseye on your back these days. That is if you could actually make those purchases. I'd imagine most major purchases that…

Good question. In Switzerland you could buy real estate with cash until very recently. You could also open a front, say a barbershop or a restaurant, though convincing authorities you earned a million or more through that could be a stretch.

Can you not, still? It may be reportable under AML rules, but it's still possible?

Re: Spanish police arrest ex-fraud chief after €20M found in walls of his house

#89

Post by yieldcrv »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #62
jknoepfler wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the suggestion is that uh... the former fraud chief of the Spanish police... become a highly connected event promotor... with access to high profile clients who will actually spend 20,000 euro for a concert ticket... which we inexplicably demand and receive IN CASH... in exchange for VIP tables at high profile events that we magically have access to... while supplying 20,000 worth of services to the one VIP that d…

The actual truth is not very far from this. He actually had a cab / private ride company. Most of his rides were fake.

How did it go from that to cocaine bust?

TAM?

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