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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.
that great a place for software development facilities anymore.
You can't just do this without insider help. And by insiders, I mean government officials.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It's a Unix system, he knows this.
Must have been using Bitcoins....
Are you sure Frank or Marvin did not do this for the CIA?
Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
Most Europeans that don't live in countries near Moldova know it for its wine. I've actually been there (though only for about 3 days) and it is quite a poor country too by European standards. I imagine this is going to hit the Moldovan people pretty hard.
He did the same thing bankers do in the rest of the world, only he didn't pay off the right people? Lesson learned.
had he extended the period in which he laundered the money. 3 days? Really?
Makes you reminiscent for the days when such blatant grand larceny was punished by execution in the public square. It would seem appropriate for damn near single-handedly killing your country's economy.
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
Man has climbed Mount Everest. Gone to the bottom of the ocean. He has fired rockets at the Moon. Split the atom. Achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor... except crime!
I had remembered that there was a small, Eastern European country that has a population of around 3 million and occupies about 13,000 square miles of territory. But I couldn't remember its name up until now - only that it rhymed with a part of the female anatomy.
So why did they bailout the banks? I want to buy a bank and do whatever I want. Apparently there are no repercussions. Don't bail them out and problem solved. It sounds like the perpetrator knew the lender of last resort would step in to "hand over" $1b in free money.
GS would love to hire this guy.
So what I am curious about, is what they did actually illegal, or is it a case of private currency manipulation? There have been a few historical cases where rich individuals or companies were able to go into poor countries and warp their economy before crashing or gutting them.
When your GDP is lower than some individual's incomes, some interesting but bad things can happen.
As we all know, not a smidgen of corruption was involved in the disappearance of certain e-mails at the IRS recently. And the only emails deleted by the former Secretary of State from the private server she illegally used were those about yoga routines and the like.
So, if America's public figures can lose important records without being corrupt, why are we automatically making such accusations against the little Moldova?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
So why did he stick around? If I had $1b in the bank, had covered my tracks, I certainly wouldn't stick around?
In nature, there are neither rewards or punishments, there are only consequences.
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
And in unrelated news Jon Corzine hired a new 28 year old assistant with banking experience in Moldova...
Maybe it's my American bias, but it's not possible for a bank to steal from the government. Because governments are property of the bank.
The problem here is the other banks were not able to transfer the entire country's GDP to their individual executives.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
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 the next Michael Lewis book
He was the front man for people who really got away with the money. I am sure there is a nest egg waiting for him for his silence and services.
"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You are welcome on my lawn.
"Procedure for stealing $1B from a small country"
This is probably not the Shor's Algorithm you are looking for.
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Captcha: Plunders
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"It was forced to bail out the banks to keep the economy from crashing."
Hillary deleted a bunch of files and that was okay with The Executive Branch who enforces these things. It must be okay.
Sounds like Elbonian banking.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
...wait until Victor Von Doom finds out what he did.
that's what the dynastic families that control the Western banking cartel and Wall Street do
$16 billion USD was flown into Iraq by the USM after the start of the 2003 war ... and ... it's gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVk25ZvTkU
This is not stealing.
Stealing is the violation of such property rights, as are claimed and enforced by a sovereign state.
If they haven't caught him yet, either they aren't enforcing their claims and have de-facto abandoned them rendering then non-property, or they aren't the sovereign state - he is.
In conclusion, Mother Nature points at Moldova and laughs.
Hmm. This guy just grabbed 1/6 of Moldova. Transnistrina, a rebellious province of Moldova that Moldova technically owns but can't govern, is about 1/6 of the country. So rather than prosecuting him, Moldova could just give him Transnistrina in exchange for the $1 billion and wish him good luck with that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
At least he won't have trouble with paying for all of the legal fees he's about to incur :)
640k ought to be enough for anyone.
Israeli-born magnate whose favourite city is Moscow is probably running away before escalation of conflict in Transnistria.
Russia time is running out and they are likely to try to annex Ukrainian territory to have access to both Crimea and Transnistria.
Steal a stick of deodorant so you can smell good and get a job, go directly to jail. Steal 1/6th a countries GDP through a bank, get house arrest.
I've been to Moldova and can't believe there exists a Billion anywhere in that country. However a lot of human trafficking does happen through there.