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The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

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Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#191

Post by nathanm412 »

1024core wrote: post #161
bryanlarsen wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He signed a contract when he opened up the bank account. That contract would have included clauses establishing liability for overdrafts, even if the bank account didn't include an overdraft facility.

> That contract would have included clauses establishing liability for overdrafts Maybe the contract did not include such a clause? There's a reason why he got acquitted in the end.

He was acquitted because they charged him criminally instead of in civil court. He should have had collections go after him while he deals with wage garnishments, not jail time.

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#192

Post by TheCoelacanth »

vxNsr wrote: post #148

I feel like his main crime may have been tax evasion... Luckily neither the prosecutor nor the judge noticed...

Money that you borrow isn't income because you have to pay it back later. Now, if the loan gets forgiven, then he would owe taxes on it.

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#193

Post by morgante »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #172
CPLX wrote: post #155

What a shame he was young and irresponsible when this happened. It could have been a truly epic story had he done something interesting like take out the money, invest it in something like income producing real property or a cashflow positive business, and then been able to come out ahead when judgement day inevitably came along by handing back the money owed.

I would imagine that most people who would allocate their money that way wouldn't take the risk of continually drawing on a magic line of credit.

I absolutely would. I'd probably call them to get some documentation that I'd tried to rectify the situation, but if they still want to keep giving me a line of credit I'd be buying up assets like crazy.

You'd be a fool to turn down unlimited zero-interest credit.

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#194

Post by xiaoma »

pktgen wrote: post #102
adekok wrote: post #51

The article doesn't way why he was found not guilty, but I'll make my guess. He did nothing to defraud the bank or mislead it. He simply had access to a large line of credit, and used it. If the bank wants it's money back, that's a civil matter, not a criminal one. It's their responsibility to ask for it back. This reeks of incompetence on the part of the bank, followed by outright malice. They put an innocent guy in…

> He did nothing to defraud the bank or mislead it. He simply had access to a large line of credit, and used it. If the bank wants it's money back, that's a civil matter, not a criminal one. It's their responsibility to ask for it back. He was drawing on this line of credit, which he knew he was legally obligated to pay back, without ever intending to pay it back. That sure seems like fraud to me. There is a differen…

Neither country has debtor's prisons anymore. That dark chapter in our history has past, fortunately.

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#195

Post by alasdair_ »

adekok wrote: post #51

The article doesn't way why he was found not guilty, but I'll make my guess. He did nothing to defraud the bank or mislead it. He simply had access to a large line of credit, and used it. If the bank wants it's money back, that's a civil matter, not a criminal one. It's their responsibility to ask for it back. This reeks of incompetence on the part of the bank, followed by outright malice. They put an innocent guy in…

The article says why he was acquitted: "I was acquitted a few weeks ago. As far as the law is concerned in Australia at the moment I had no legal obligation to inform the Bank of what was going on."

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#196

Post by Pigo »

krallja wrote: post #163
Pigo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my reason for being against the death penalty for many years. It's hard to justify when the OJ's of the world get a pass due to wealth or celebrity. I never thought of AI being used in this capacity. Seems like we'd live in The Day The Earth Stood Still world, giving the automatons the jurisdiction to meat out justice.

mete

thakns :)

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#197

Post by raesene6 »

abiox wrote: post #141
raesene6 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's easy, he had no money to pay it back, ergo it's fair to conclude he had no intention of paying it back. It's one thing to go a couple of thousand overdrawn, quite another to spend $2 million when you have no source of income.

> he had no money to pay it back, ergo it's fair to conclude he had no intention of paying i don't think that would stand in any court. the former doesn't imply the latter by necessity.

Whilst IANAL, it would seem logical that a court would look at whether the defendant could reasonably have expected to be able to pay back a loan.

If I have a say $50k/year job and borrow say $200k I could reasonably have expected to pay it back, if I then lose my job I could say I had intended to do so but circumstances changed.

if I have $0/year as a job and borrow $2 million, you're not seriously suggesting that any reasonable person would buy "oh I totally was going to pay it back" are you?

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#198

Post by eridius »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #116
1024core wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But he didn't take out a loan. The bank kept giving him money whenever he wanted to withdraw it. That is not a loan. A loan requires explicit agreement and a fixed amount.

He signed a contract when he opened up the bank account. That contract would have included clauses establishing liability for overdrafts, even if the bank account didn't include an overdraft facility.

Even if the contract did establish that, it's the bank's responsibility to handle the overdraft, it's not his responsibility to avoid overdrafting.

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#199

Post by raesene6 »

Someone wrote: post #145
raesene6 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's easy, he had no money to pay it back, ergo it's fair to conclude he had no intention of paying it back. It's one thing to go a couple of thousand overdrawn, quite another to spend $2 million when you have no source of income.

"Have no money to pay it back" applies to many companies (including many banks) that borrowed money and to many house owners, too. Would you conclude they have no intention of paying it back, too? Many companies also spend money they lent on frivolous stuff (end of year parties, football tables, etc) that doesn't obviously contribute to the bottom line, so buying some booze and spending some money on strippers, in it…

well in the UK when you want to take out a loan, the bank is legally obliged to look at your ability to repay and not loan you the money if you don't appear to have the ability to repay. Home owners have collatoral, business have business plans, those are assessed by banks for ability to repay.

If this guy had actually said to the bank "hey I want to borrow $2 million, I have no income and no collatoral" do you think they would have accepted the loan?

Re: The bank lent me $2m so I spent it on strippers and cars

#200

Post by ascorbic »

jjeaff wrote: post #122
Bartweiss wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, significant difference. I've seen several stories of people prosecuted for spending improper deposits, but presumably a loan - where risk is implied and defaulting is an understood practice - is a different beast.

He seems to be trying to justify his actions by calling it a loan, but I've never heard of a loan where the bank tells you that you can just start over drafting your account and let it go negative, then pay us back later.

I don't know about Australia, but in the U.K. that's pretty much standard. Most current accounts come with an authorised overdraft limit, even if it's just a few hundred pounds. I've had to specifically state that I don't want one when opening an account.
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