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A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

bbc.com

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Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#71

Post by shubb »

The statement that signing off the transfers wasn't the work of one man is probably accurate.

So, what was this? Was Sissoko acting as a mule for getting money out of the bank and transferring it to other places?

One way to launder money is to buy things after all. Luxury goods like food, wine and art are particularly good for this. If I need to give you $1000 with plausible deniability, then if I go to your restaurant and pay $1000 for a $50 meal, that does the job.

So, someone wanted to quietly move millions of dollars out of a bank, and then gave it to someone who possibly laundered it, and did things like running and airline and buying military helicopters (what other military hardware was he not caught buying?).

Then the US diplomatic system went to bat for him in court. Black magic or black budget?

(Edit: the spies angle is probably a bit of a push, but I think speculating he was laundering for a bigger fish isn't)

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#72

Post by trhway »

sireat wrote: post #64
rando444 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat related quote: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence as long as you are a state you are fine. Plenty of current examples from all types of states.

as long as you're becoming a state afterwards, or more precisely - as long as you're a winner. Mandela was taken off terrorist list only very recently. Hamas being practically a state already, not a winner yet and thus is still a terrorist org.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#74

Post by taoistextremist »

troels wrote: post #12

> He would give away money, but … to my knowledge it was never done in a way that he didn't get publicity for it. Well. That's a bit of a circular argument.

I don't think so. He could have given away money in a more discreet fashion and it would be evident that he did so and not have been for publicity.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#75

Post by SolarNet »

imjk wrote: post #27
lawlessone wrote: post #22

>"He walked into Citibank one day, no appointment, met a teller and he ended up marrying her," This guy is smooth.

I assume if she was a teller and saw, say $100MM, in an account assigned to him, it wouldn't be unimaginable for her to believe whatever story he conjures up.

Also he paid her half a million (a million in today's money) for her help. Less a wife, and more a special kind of legally protected employee.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#76

Post by OxO4 »

rando444 wrote: post #54
firasd wrote: post #10

Reminds me of a great (now-deleted) tweet I saw a few years ago: "Everything is legal if you scale it up." Convert the cash to assets, then convert the assets to political clout---at that point the cash heist is in the rear-view mirror...

Somewhat related quote: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

This reminds me of: "Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god." - Jean Rostand

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#77

Post by dfox »

samstave wrote: post #62
firasd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did some googling and based on this legal judgment it seems like his relationship with the woman at Citibank really helped in making withdrawals from the Dubai Islamic Bank https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2504755/dubai-islamic-... Also found this article from '98 where a coworker asks the same thing and gets the same answer Ayyoub gave other people: "I asked how he had transferred so much money without approval…

Given the current state of computers and surveillance, It would seem that we dont know anything about the simplicity required to pull off mass heists in the age prior to computers-in-their-current-form.... It would seem that it was REALLY easy to rob banks in the past. I wonder what Dillenger's actual networth would have been...

American (and thus international) banking seems to work on the somehow backwads principle of allowing allmost any transaction without any real authorization (eg. credits cards, direct debits, checks and such, where only thing you really need to know for the transaction to happen is some semi-public number) and dealing with possible issues after the fact On the other hand the system is pretty good at finding the party responsible, or in other words whose insurance will be billed for the missing money (for example when you look at it from this PoV the EMV protocols and cryptography used make sense). But for that to work someone has to be actually looking for the issues.

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#78

Post by swat535 »

matte_black wrote: post #15
firasd wrote: post #10

Reminds me of a great (now-deleted) tweet I saw a few years ago: "Everything is legal if you scale it up." Convert the cash to assets, then convert the assets to political clout---at that point the cash heist is in the rear-view mirror...

It will catch up to you in the end.

You are applying the Just World Fallacy[0] here

This is the same line of thinking that we all apply for things such as "Karma".

Just because we believe we live in a just world, it doesn't make it so.

It is why crucial for people to remain vigilant of legal loopholes and apply political pressure to make any changes.

As citizens, we have more power than we realize.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#79

Post by dfox »

dfox wrote: post #77
samstave wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the current state of computers and surveillance, It would seem that we dont know anything about the simplicity required to pull off mass heists in the age prior to computers-in-their-current-form.... It would seem that it was REALLY easy to rob banks in the past. I wonder what Dillenger's actual networth would have been...

American (and thus international) banking seems to work on the somehow backwads principle of allowing allmost any transaction without any real authorization (eg. credits cards, direct debits, checks and such, where only thing you really need to know for the transaction to happen is some semi-public number) and dealing with possible issues after the fact On the other hand the system is pretty good at finding the party…

Somewhat tangential but relevant: As I'm currently moving I spent some part of the afternoon by changing periodic payments setup on my bank account and was somehow amused by the "create transaction" menu in my (european) banks' web application. There is menu item which essentially says "Direct debit (this is probably not what you want)".

Re: A man who got away with $242M using ‘black magic’

#80

Post by lotophage »

pjc50 wrote: post #4

The "send me your money and I'll send double back" scam is a staple among kids playing MMOs since at least the days of Runescape. Doubtless it goes a lot further back.

Sissoko did this in 1995, which predates Runescape. It's essentially a Ponzi scheme, variations of which are mentioned as far back as the 1800s. I suspect that they are even older than that.
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