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Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

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Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#101

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rgmerk wrote: post #84
evan_ wrote: post #21

Passing it off as proceeds from a vending machine business was smart, I wonder if he actually had a fleet of vending machines to make that plausible. Of course you’d need to be able to show receipts for cost of goods sold… money laundering is hard!

It doesn’t sound like he did. Laundromats would have been ideal for this kind of, well, money laundering. In a pre-digital era, who’s going to check that the number of cycles on the washing machines line up exactly with the takings?

An auditor or private investigator, but granted, there's a lot of room for tax evasion - there's a reason a lot of businesses and contractors will gladly take cash, tax evasion being one, most digital transaction costing them money being another. It's fairly common in my country (NL) to see signs saying "please pay in cash" and "€0.25 surcharge if paying with debit card for amounts below €20"

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#102

Post by refurb »

xpe wrote: post #68
refurb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed that too. $38k in 1981 in Edmonton was firmly middle class. Plenty of homes cost less than $100k. Rent was in the $100-300 per month range for a nice 2 bedroom. Dude just got greedy. If he had skimmed $600 per week instead of $3000, he would have doubled his take home pay and likely never would have been caught. It would have amounted to almost $100k every 3 years which is a tidy sum back then.

> Dude just got greedy. It seems to me that once a person builds an illegal habit, it demonstrates they: (a) probably have a higher risk tolerance than most people and/or an inaccurate understanding of the empirical risk level and/or (b) they have, perhaps only temporarily, found a self-interestedly-rational aspect of law/society to exploit. Once one's behavior crosses into that realm, "dude just got greedy" seems to…

All good points. But there is also an element of "if they haven't caught me now, they won't ever". Risk tolerance increases over time.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#103

Post by lolc »

drgo wrote: post #63

He got away too easy if you ask me. You will need to spend a miminm of 2 years in jail for owning not stealing 500 cannabis plants

If we take cannabis legislation as a guideline for other laws, farming as an occupation faces a grim future.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#104

Post by robertlagrant »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #79
mrtksn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but banks do it within a legal framework that moderates the risk(at least in theory) and people know what they are signing into and what are their guarantees. You don't see too many banks collapsing, don't you? When it happens, its a big deal like with the SVB earlier last year. It's also what Sam Bankman-Fried and others did in exchanges that acted as unregulated banks. The system is not perfect and there are ma…

>You don't see too many banks collapsing, don't you? When it happens, its a big deal like with the SVB earlier last year. "Moderating risk" = depending on the US federal government bail you out? There really is no need for the charade of banks now that electronic databases are very solid technology. Their whole role in transmitting and keeping an account of money is surely reproducible by the federal government at ve…

> Their whole role in transmitting and keeping an account of money is surely reproducible by the federal government at very little cost (maybe even lower cost due to not needing FDIC and all that infrastructure) without having to pay a middleman.

Banks don't store money. They connect money to businesses in a structured way. No banks means businesses won't get created.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#105

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

hyperpape wrote: post #59
mschuster91 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discrepancies in accounting are the norm, not the exception. No large company will ever have perfectly balanced books for a multitude of reasons - too many different IT systems that sometimes but not always have the same data, humans in the loop that forget or fat-finger entries, inventory loss/theft/damage, you name it.

You're right in principle, but are they usually 20%?

This is only 20% of cash fares paid at LRT stations. It wouldn’t count those who used a bus pass, paper ticket (these are sold at many retailers, not just directly by Edmonton Transit), or those who paid on a bus and are using their transfer to ride the LRT.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#107

Post by infecto »

nicgrev103 wrote: post #66
mrtksn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually pretty common criminal activity in banking, where an employee will take money from accounts of clients and "gamble" it on high-return short term investments. Obviously I won't be naming Banks here but what usually happens is: 1) If they succeed in their investment they put the money back and walk out rich. Their venture can be detected during an audit some time later but if there's no money missing th…

Isn't this literally what banks do? Take peoples deposits paying a minimal interest rate and then invest that money to earn a return higher than the interest rate they pay the customer (they actually will also borrow more money on the back of your deposit). So, when it's the bank doing it it's ok but a bank employee doing it independently for personal gain it's an issue. The book deal aspect was interesting also. So,…

By no means are banks the hero in most stories but from the view of normal depository actions I do not believe them to be the villain. Banks are required to follow very specific rules when it comes to deposits and while yes they should be making a spread on the money, they are not just buying up risky investments with it.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#109

Post by Retric »

robertlagrant wrote: post #104
lotsofpulp wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You don't see too many banks collapsing, don't you? When it happens, its a big deal like with the SVB earlier last year. "Moderating risk" = depending on the US federal government bail you out? There really is no need for the charade of banks now that electronic databases are very solid technology. Their whole role in transmitting and keeping an account of money is surely reproducible by the federal government at ve…

> Their whole role in transmitting and keeping an account of money is surely reproducible by the federal government at very little cost (maybe even lower cost due to not needing FDIC and all that infrastructure) without having to pay a middleman. Banks don't store money. They connect money to businesses in a structured way. No banks means businesses won't get created.

Fewer rather than zero businesses. Rich individuals could directly invest. Where banks shine is in making moderate risk investments which aren’t worth much individually but are a significant economic boost in aggregate.

Housing may be unaffordable, but people aren’t living in sod houses with dirt floors and no running water either.

Re: Salim Kara stole $2M in coins with a magnet and a car antenna (2022)

#110

Post by infecto »

hoseja wrote: post #75
npteljes wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So, when it's the bank doing it it's ok but a bank employee doing it independently for personal gain it's an issue. Yes, this is correct. The bank does it in a somewhat government controlled fashion, with checks and balances, which the world has been fighting for a millennia, if not more. And the guy inside does it with stolen money, for personal gain. Consent, for one, is a difference between the two actions, if we…

[flagged]

Get away with what? Banks follow very specific rules for deposits when FDIC is involved.
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