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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)

#81

Post by cogogo »

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.

They likely counted the number of passengers via turnstiles or a gate or something. Think passenger count would be a good indicator of expected revenue and there would be a pretty clear gap. Probably one of the things the auditors noticed that was explained away by buggy code.

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

#82

Post by nicgrev103 »

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…

I'm not sure how many people know this is what the bank is doing with their deposits, making consent difficult.

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

#83

Post by lallysingh »

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]

I believe FDIC limits what the owners can do.

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

#84

Post by rgmerk »

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?

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

#85

Post by mrtksn »

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…

Nope. It's about creating a system that attempts to analyse risks and invests within margins that are acceptable for specific products.

It impossible for a bank for example to put all their money into Dogecoin because someone got a hunch that Musk will tweet about it. To do that they will need to create some kind of instrument that allows others to bet on Musks tweeting habits.

> 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

That's not what banks do. You can do that without being a bank, like PayPal did. Most places will have different and much lightweight regulations than banks for this and you will go to jail if you do anything more than holding and transmitting customer money.

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

#86

Post by tiborsaas »

> He removed the face plate from the ticket machines, which as a repairman would raise no suspicion, then rigged a car antenna with a magnetic tip, like a make-shift fishing rod. Coin-by-coin, Kara hooked his catch out of the ticketing machine cash box into a shaving bag, which acted as his keep net.

I can't picture how his rig worked, the article would have benefitted by anything visual help :/

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

#87

Post by mywacaday »

belter wrote: post #80
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…

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.

I worked in a bank in Europe that was Dutch owned and we were requied to take two weeks. I don't know of that was a company policy though.

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

#88

Post by lotsofpulp »

mrtksn wrote: post #85
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…

Nope. It's about creating a system that attempts to analyse risks and invests within margins that are acceptable for specific products. It impossible for a bank for example to put all their money into Dogecoin because someone got a hunch that Musk will tweet about it. To do that they will need to create some kind of instrument that allows others to bet on Musks tweeting habits. > There really is no need for the chara…

>That's not what banks do. You can do that without being a bank, like PayPal.

Except PayPal has no FDIC protection.

The part of the bank (or credit union) that required the US government to provide FDIC protection was due to dealing with cash. Imagine creating a country with just electronic money. What purpose would a bank with a FDIC protection serve if the government can just operate electronic money accounts itself? And if you want to take more risk and earn a higher return, you find a broker or investment fund or investor.

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

#89

Post by Dah00n »

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

By that logic, you are also stating that you see two years in jail “for owning not stealing 500 cannabis plants” as a fitting punishment, no? Seems to me one is fine while the other is too high.

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

#90

Post by mrtksn »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #88
mrtksn wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. It's about creating a system that attempts to analyse risks and invests within margins that are acceptable for specific products. It impossible for a bank for example to put all their money into Dogecoin because someone got a hunch that Musk will tweet about it. To do that they will need to create some kind of instrument that allows others to bet on Musks tweeting habits. > There really is no need for the chara…

>That's not what banks do. You can do that without being a bank, like PayPal. Except PayPal has no FDIC protection. The part of the bank (or credit union) that required the US government to provide FDIC protection was due to dealing with cash. Imagine creating a country with just electronic money. What purpose would a bank with a FDIC protection serve if the government can just operate electronic money accounts itsel…

>Imagine creating a country with just electronic money. What purpose would a physical bank serve?

Investing customers money, create money.

Most money in the world is digital already, there are many banks that don't have physical presence and traditional banks are shutting down branches more than the open because branches are just the foot soldiers. There are also countries where cash is almost not used. Banks are not about cash, they are about credit.

I don't know what a "physical bank" means though, AFAIk there's no such thing and the buildings that banks own or operate would serve functions like hosting employees/clients/systems but they might choose not to have some of those.

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