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28-Year-Old Businessman Accused of Stealing $1 Billion From Moldova
An anonymous reader writes: You could be excused for not knowing much about Moldova — the small, Eastern European country has a population of around 3 million and occupies about 13,000 square miles of territory. Its GDP is just over $6 billion — which makes accusations that 28-year-old Ilan Shor stole close to a billion dollars from the country's banks quite interesting. A recent report (PDF) says Shor led a group that bought controlling stakes in three Moldovan banks and then passed transactions between them to increase their liquidity. The banks then issued massive loans to companies owned or related to Shor. $767 million disappeared from the banks, and the country's central bank thinks that total will rise to $1 billion. It was forced to bail out the banks to keep the economy from crashing. Widespread corruption led to many records of Shor's actions being "lost" or outright deleted. He's now charged and placed under house arrest while the investigation continues.
TARP had an 8.2% ROI in 6 years, not too shabby.
As far as Eastern European country bank heists go, this guy is an amateur. The way professionals do it is by first controlling the government and the media. Then you steal the money (say some 7-8 billion) by funneling them through a chain of hollow companies to offshore accounts. Finally you set one of your partners with whom you have unsettled depth as the fall guy, while you yourself use your political connection to become the head of the local equivalent of the FBI:
Bulgaria's CorpBank: A Tangled Web Of Fraud
Or just become President like Putin did
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
GS would love to hire this guy.
You steal $1000 dollars and the police look for you. You steal $100,000 and the FBI looks for you. You steal $10,000,000 and the banks hire you. You steal $1,000,000,000 and the lawyers get you off on a technicality.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Right?! I just don't understand why Moldova won't embrace the job creators like we do in the US. This man is a hero of capitalism.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
Freaking Moldova can put a banker in jail, why can't we?
"There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics"
Sounds like Elbonian banking.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
You can't just do this without insider help. And by insiders, I mean government officials.
Wouldn't happen here. In Soviet America; Bank robs you!
Why are you guys complaining? This is just the free market at work, imaginative businessmen bypassing the onerous tyranny of regulators.