OK. Which one of you was this?

All you can eat carnival food, on the cheap.

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If I lived 10 minutes away from a large theme park, instead of 90 minutes, Iā€™d be doing this daily as well. Iā€™m openly jealous of those who can. Most places with ā€œall seasonā€ dining plans are not ā€œglorified carnival foodā€. They offer typical (if limited variety) meals that you get when you go out to eat anywhere, including salads, wraps, steak hoagies, pizza, hamburgers, roasted chicken, burritos, etc, etc, etc. It isnt all funnel cakes and cotton candy (which generally arent even included in dining plans).

At the park nearest me, I could eat varieties of the same stuff Iā€™d be eating at home anyways, and if I took advantage daily itā€™d cost me less than 50-cents per day over the operating season (about a dollar a day if you factor in the cost of the season gate pass too).

If not for the fact it might make going to the park less appealing, Iā€™d suggest local cities purchase all their local homeless season passes and dining plans for the local theme park. Far, far, far more bang for the buck than food stamps or any other support program.

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Iā€™m impressed. I had that annual pass for a few years back in the day, but I donā€™t remember it including any mealsā€¦

$100B in easy money.

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More than $2.3 billion in stolen funds have been recovered so far

Way to go guys! Only $97.7 billion to go!

The Secret Service, ā€¦ announced the appointment of a new national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator

Well, finally! We are sure to see some action now. The crooks are shaking in their new Uggs.

ā€œIā€™ve been in law enforcement for over 29 years and worked some complex fraud investigations for 20 plus years, and Iā€™ve never seen something at this scale,ā€ said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Roy Dotson, who was named to the new role at the agency.

From that comment, itā€™s easy to see why the Uggs thugs are so scared.

ā€œThereā€™s no doubt that the programs were easily accessible online. And so, with that, comes the opportunity for bad actors to get into that mix,ā€

And Mr. Dotson, with all of that experience and wisdom, where were you, or your department, or your entire agency 18 months ago? Hey, even I can look back at Saratogaā€™s last season and easily explain why the winners won. I donā€™t have the gall to do so, but you seem to have that covered.

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I wonder how much is actual fraud, and how much is people who shouldnā€™t have gotten it but legitimately did due to poorly written and hastily implemented guidelines, so they label it fraud to deflect blame off themselves?

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Since we will never know, I will happily go on the record and say > 86.8%.

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But enough about the last election, I want to know about the next one! :smiley:

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Munchkin said up front they werenā€™t going to verify anythingā€¦

And they also fought to hide the details of the awarded loans.

But Iā€™m sure itā€™s somehow ā€œBidenā€™s money printerā€ (of all the money spent in the previous administration) to blame, just like for ā€œBidenā€™sā€ inflation.

Did I say anything remotely close to that? Iā€™m talking about things like the large franchises that got money per location, being criticized for taking the money despite the specific language stating that large franchises were eligible per location. That isnā€™t fraud, but I suspect itā€™s included in that $100 billion.

Same with PUA unemployment recipients who may not have been intended recipients, but answered all the questions accurately and qualified anyways. I seem to recall hearing at least one state has sent a huge number of UI recipients a ā€œOops, we made a mistake and now you need to repay this money unless you can prove otherwiseā€ letters - that isnā€™t fraud, thatā€™s their own incompetence. And again I suspect itā€™s included in that 100B.

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ā€œI identify as retiredā€

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Hopefully none of you. The 5 year old Bitfinex hack.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-09/business-rapper-was-bad-at-bitcoin-laundering

Bitfinex is the exchange affiliated with the worldā€™s biggest stablecoin, Tether. At the time of the hack, the digital currency haul was estimated at about $71 million, the Justice Department said. The department said the total value of stolen Bitcoin is now worth about $4.5 billion. ā€¦

Lichtenstein, 34, and Morgan, 31, also funneled the money through AlphaBay Marketplace, which was shut down in 2017, to hide their transactions. Some of the money was cashed out through Bitcoin ATMs. Some was used to buy NFTs and gold. They even used the money to buy a Walmart gift card.

What a cover story. I am certainly not telling you to steal $4.5 billion of Bitcoin from a crypto exchange and launder it through the financial system. That is frowned upon, it is not nice to the people whose crypto was stolen, and you will probably go to prison. Itā€™s not good . It is, however ā€¦ look I am sorry it is cool . Like if I met the person who did that I would be impressed , by the boldness, and by the fact that she has $4.5 billion. And when I think about the person who did that, the words that do not come to mind are ā€œForbes rapper.ā€

These people are charged with money-laundering conspiracy, but their real tragedy is that they allegedly did a lot of conspiring without a whole lot of laundering . They were allegedly billionaires in ill-gotten Bitcoin, and they couldnā€™t spend it.[3]

You might think that a federal criminal indictment for $4.5 billion of Bitcoin money laundering would be vindication of the ā€œBitcoin is for money launderersā€ side, but I want to tell you: No it is not! What allegedly happened here is that hackers stole $4.5 billion of Bitcoin from a crypto exchange (and stealing from exchanges absolutely is a major function of crypto), and then they had a horrible time laundering it. They managed to extract only a relatively small portion of the money for actual spending, and each time they got money out the feds were able to trace it from the hack all the way to legitimate accounts with their names on it. The laundering efforts were small-scale, and they are also how they got caught .

They also scammed the PPP covid relief fund for $11k. Next time I find myself with $5B in crypto, Iā€™m not going to think too hard about 5 figure additional criminal fraudsā€¦ thatā€™s part of why they got caught, and also why I donā€™t have a private island somewhere bought with well laundered crypto billions.

Never commit small frauds :wink:

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$250k in Amex points for churning seems to have been one of the smaller shady endeavors by this guy.

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bump

Donā€™t spend it all in one place

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384762251759

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Thatā€™s some expensive money launderingā€¦ :joy:

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No bid yet:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154898818188

(1) Philadelphia Nickel.

Odd ā€¦ when I think of northern, urban areas, I donā€™t think of nickel. I think of lead, as in 9mm, or brick, as in through the windshield, or hubcap, as in missing. :smile:

I love a happy ending. Enron high flier gets a well timed divorce.

When you put it all together, Lou Pai is one of the luckiest people on the planet. By getting his stripper girlfriend pregnant, he was forced to sell off every single share of Enron he ever owned. He walked away just below the peak of Enronā€™s stock price with an $280 million*. His only real consequence came in 2008 when he agreed in an out of court settlement to pay $31.5 million in civil fines and restitution to Enronā€™s investors

Louā€™s ex wife Lanna L. Pai, with whom he had two children, was paid an undisclosed lump sum that is believed to be in the tens of millions. She also was granted the right to the coupleā€™s Houston mansion, a Houston condo and a $3 million house in Hawaii.

Meanwhile, Lou married his stripper girlfriend, now known as Melanie Miller Pai. Together, with their newborn child, the couple moved to Colorado where Lou became the second largest land holder in the entire state after purchasing a 120 square mile ranch in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

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:rofl:

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