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Man stole $122m from Facebook and Google by sending them random bills, which the companies dutifully paid
- Thread starter Dalek
- Start date
Reminds me of this kid here in Georgia that almost got the state the pay out $20MM in tax returns by building a network of online shell companies and faking overpayment.
1. Easier to just pay it than ask questions
2. Everyone assumes that someone else knows what's going on
As someone that has recently come into the world of invoices, pay apps, POs, etc. I've had to really hunt down people to provide backup on work hour tracking, material, shipping tickets, etc. because no one checks that shit and my company ends up double paying or double ordering shit all the time.
This seems like the perfect situation for the phrase "The most perfect crime is the crime you do once."
Billion dollar multi-national corporations aren't my friend either. I can't be mad at a guy hustling against a giant, evil corporation. It's largely a victimless crime.
What about shareholders? What about employees? All of them are evil?
What employee was personally harmed by his crime? And, has Google or Facebook's share prices dropped dramatically in the last couple years? I think you know the answer to both questions.
100m dollars can employ a lot of people and be used to issue dividends. It's real money...
As publicly traded companies whose stocks are widely held in millions and millions of people's retirement accounts, this is the exact opposite. It's a crime with millions of victims losing very little, the damages are too small for any one person to really care if organized crime is siphoning a small amount from everyone. That's, thankfully, one of the reasons why there's a Justice Department ... to go after crimes where there's millions of little victims losing tiny amounts of their money. FWIW, it sounds like Google recovered the money stolen from them, not sure about Facebook.
Also if you're setting up shell companies in Latvia pretending to be another company and money laundering hundreds of millions of dollars to other shell companies in other Eastern European countries, it's a pretty safe bet that you've got some shady associates.
The guy's defense is also that he's not just "a guy hustling against giant evil corporations," but that he's just one part of a criminal organization where he was in charge of "just creating the shell companies and bank accounts." So, if this guy's defense is true, it'd also explain why "a single guy hustling" is going after $100m+ instead of stopping at $1million or $2million or what have you:
So, yeah, I'm sure Eastern European organized crime are the good guys, per usual, and there's no victims in any of their crimes. I fucking hate Facebook, I'm suspicious of GOogle (though admittedly use a ton of their products), but it's naive to think that organized crime is winning one for us.
So, you're saying Google and Facebook held off on hiring new employees because of business expenses they paid for that they thought was legitimate? And, that these expenses were extremely detrimental to their operating expenses but at the same time not worthy of double-checking to see if they were legitimate due to the sheer volume and amount of transactions they conduct.
Jesus christ, I would have shit my pants and stopped if I made a million doing this shit. He kept going to 122 million? Lmao.
It's certainly possible. And not just employees... they could've held off on hiring any number of contractors outside their business as well.
Companies do have budgets, even if they aren't policing them responsibly.
He stole from rich people so of course he gets fucked over. When wells fargo steals from people their executives get bonuses and taxpayer bailouts
ResetEra, where video game piracy is the most heinous crime ever but stealing $122m from Facebook and Google is okay
It's not quite the same thing, but it reminds me of that guy who used a change of address form to make the UPS headquarters his apartment.
So rapists and murderers can get out in like 5-7 years easy, but he's facing up to 30 years? As if we needed more proofs that rich companies are above all
This is basically the same argument that pinched mobsters used to justify insurance fraud schemes, money laundering through union retirement plans during the reign of organized crime in the US in the 20th century. It's the same argument that Michael Cohen made a career out of when he defended mobsters and organized criminals... Steal a little here and there from everybody and nobody feels victimized enough to care, especially if you do so from people noone likes. The mobsters that Cohen represented usually stole from group health insurance pools and nobody likes your health insurance company, or stock pump and dump fraud.
It's true, most people won't feel the pain when organized crime steals $10m here or $20m there, spread out over years. That's how the execs are Enron slept at night... their companies bottom lines were just going up and up despite that they were literally stealing from the retirement plans of their employees. If an employee's retirement plan is performing at 200% YoY, they're not going to notice that the execs are milking a hundred dollars here, or a thousand here, to the tune of millions... Until the Justice Dept. finds out and wrings them up for 50+ counts of money laundering and fraud.
I mean quit while you're ahead. Targetted facebook AND Google? Shiiiit. Enjoy your rotting money in Jail.
Most people would be set for life with a few million. This guy got addicted to the scam.
Happens all the time, although most will send out invoices with realistic numbers like $723.52.
ResetEra, where video game piracy is the most heinous crime ever but stealing $122m from Facebook and Google is okay
Well given that THQ Nordic kinda got away from their disgusting Q+A with little backlash from the journalists, gamers and mods/admins from this boards.
It's clear that they don't care.
To all of the posts like "why didn't he stop at $1m? What did he need $100m for???"
Because he's likely part of a large organized crime ring in Eastern Europe, and he may be the easiest to be brought in first. He plead guilty and his defense in the SDNY was that he just set up the shell corporations and the fraud accounts, that he wasn't in charge of what happened with any of the money once he got it into those fraud bank accounts.
SDNY dropped the ~5 other charges against him in exchange for his guilty plead, so there's a solid chance he's going to be used as part of a wider crackdown. That's how prosecutors usually try to crack into the mob.
From the statement issued by Google, it sounds as though they were the ones that initially found out about the fraud, tipped off the government to it, and that they've recovered their money. Facebook says they've "recovered the bulk" of their's... however much that is.
To all the posts like "Wow 30 years, that sucks"
He probably won't do 30 years. That's the maximum sentence for someone convicted of such a huge crime like this. If his attorney is right, that he's just a cog in a large criminal ring, the sentence of 30 years is the 'stick' used to get him to testify against others related to this. Alternatively, he could also be the head of this organized crime ring, and maybe he would do the time. Single counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and other crimes specifically targeting organized crime were strengthened in the 70s because small criminal sentences weren't capable of bringing down major organized crime rings, as junior criminals who were easiest to pin crimes on wouldn't give up their bosses and boss's bosses if they only had to do a few years in jail. 'RICO' changed that and it led to bringing down the American mob. They're also, incidentally, the same laws that could bring down associates in Trump's criminal circle.
Because he's likely part of a large organized crime ring in Eastern Europe, and he may be the easiest to be brought in first. He plead guilty and his defense in the SDNY was that he just set up the shell corporations and the fraud accounts, that he wasn't in charge of what happened with any of the money once he got it into those fraud bank accounts.
SDNY dropped the ~5 other charges against him in exchange for his guilty plead, so there's a solid chance he's going to be used as part of a wider crackdown. That's how prosecutors usually try to crack into the mob.
From the statement issued by Google, it sounds as though they were the ones that initially found out about the fraud, tipped off the government to it, and that they've recovered their money. Facebook says they've "recovered the bulk" of their's... however much that is.
To all the posts like "Wow 30 years, that sucks"
He probably won't do 30 years. That's the maximum sentence for someone convicted of such a huge crime like this. If his attorney is right, that he's just a cog in a large criminal ring, the sentence of 30 years is the 'stick' used to get him to testify against others related to this. Alternatively, he could also be the head of this organized crime ring, and maybe he would do the time. Single counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and other crimes specifically targeting organized crime were strengthened in the 70s because small criminal sentences weren't capable of bringing down major organized crime rings, as junior criminals who were easiest to pin crimes on wouldn't give up their bosses and boss's bosses if they only had to do a few years in jail. 'RICO' changed that and it led to bringing down the American mob. They're also, incidentally, the same laws that could bring down associates in Trump's criminal circle.
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Iam 29. To think that i would be in prison for this long is unbelievable. So much i lived through, done etc.
30 years is soooooo much time.
Yeah, or that he's involved with the Russian mob. Just... the nature of where he's creating these fraudulent bank accounts... Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary, Hong Kong... If you're involved in a $100m money laundering scheme in Eastern Europe, wiring hundreds of millions of dollars around these countries, you're likely involved with some pretty shady characters doing very shady shit.
It'd also explain why he didn't just "quit while he's ahead" at $200,000, or $2m, or $20m... And his defense is that he's a small part of a large criminal organization.
That these companies have tons of beureaucracy is likely precisely how this happened for so long without anyone noticing.
When you have huge multinational companies with multiple layers of beureaucracy for their accounts and purchasing processes, you have a situation where your left arm doesn't know what your right arm is doing and any one person will find it extremely difficult to have a complete and comprehensive understanding of everything that is happening with the company's finances.
