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

nofreelunch.co.uk

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

#71

Post by tyingq »

ben_w wrote: post #28

Interesting. A litte after that time, aged 13-14, I was interested in coin pusher machines[0], which (despite being gambling) were not age restricted where I lived. Obviously I wanted a way to do better than the system allowed and wanted to know if I could use magnets to pull the coins towards me[1]; some research showed that some "coppers"[2] were magnetic and others weren't, and that it seemed to depend on the date…

I don't think the 1980's loonies were steel, they appear to have been mostly nickel.

I suspect though, that some detail of the various ways he did this just got lost over time. You could probably fish them out with superglue or sticky mastic on the antenna rather than a magnet, for example.

Or maybe the magnet was always used to hold some kind of trap door open rather than directly fishing the coins.

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

#72

Post by npteljes »

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,…

>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're talking morality.

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

#73

Post by badcppdev »

nikanj wrote: post #25
badcppdev wrote: post #2

That is absolutely disgraceful on the part of the accountants and programmers who should have been reconciling the cash vs sales. Over 13 years!

This was decades ago, the ticket machines were not real-time connected to anything. It's entirely possible the numbers accounting used for ticket sales was the amount of cash retrieved from the machines, and there was no separate system keeping track of the tickets printed.

Good point. 1981 was a very long time ago in IT terms

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

#75

Post by hoseja »

npteljes wrote: post #72
nicgrev103 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

>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]

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

#76

Post by rightbyte »

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]

The difference might be in the risk, since the insider keep the "surplus returns". So he gamble more aggressively than agreed upon. But ye of the bank does that it is the same thing, ye.

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

#77

Post by samirillian »

Freak_NL wrote: post #9

A curious thing here is that, if this article is correct, the man spent 16 months in prison, and had repaid the amount stolen by then. It seems reasonable to assume that if he had not invested his stolen money in real estate he would not have been able to repay his debt to society so cleanly. I wonder if in the end he didn't make a sizeable profit from all of this.

Yeah, I mean, real estate in BC (where he bought one of his properties) is notoriously corrupt, and lucrative. Most real estate bought in BC is paid in cash, often by some dizzying maze of LLCs or whatever the Canadian equivalent is. Essentially money laundering and investment rolled into one.

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

#78

Post by ajb »

ben_w wrote: post #50
ajb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newer 'coppers' are magnetic, so I doubt it. The reason was because they were becoming more expensive to make than their face value. Anyway you couldn't steal a significant amount in coppers, the main debate is whether to get rid of them entirely.

> the main debate is whether to get rid of them entirely. Now, yes. But this was the 90s. You could still (just about) buy some items for a single penny back then.

Fair enough. Still, £2M in copper would weigh about 700 tonnes.

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

#79

Post by lotsofpulp »

mrtksn wrote: post #69
nicgrev103 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

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 very little cost (maybe even lower cost due to not needing FDIC and all that infrastructure) without having to pay a middleman.

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

#80

Post by belter »

mrtksn wrote: post #60
Freak_NL wrote: post #9

A curious thing here is that, if this article is correct, the man spent 16 months in prison, and had repaid the amount stolen by then. It seems reasonable to assume that if he had not invested his stolen money in real estate he would not have been able to repay his debt to society so cleanly. I wonder if in the end he didn't make a sizeable profit from all of this.

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…

I worked in finance and I am not aware of jurisdictions that mandate 2 weeks time off. Can you mention one? I am aware of some recommendations but I have worked up to board level, and never see this being more than an excuse to not miss the next golf tournament.
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