Eighty-year-old US 'web scam man' on the run after pocketing $250,000 in Dem 'donations' A man facing criminal charges for bilking US voters out of $250,000 by accepting donations for politicians, including Beto O'Rourke, is on the run. John Pierre Dupont was due to appear in federal court in Manhattan back in March but failed to show, despite having posted $100,000 in bail. On Tuesday, federal authorities …
It's unlikely he's a member of any party. I have not been able to find reliable figures, and party membership means different things in each party and each state, but very few Americans are members of any party. As to motive, again, who can say, since he's skipped out on the trial? Perhaps he wanted to harm Democratic candidates, perhaps he was simply more familiar with them, perhaps he targeted races he felt were likely to be competitive, perhaps he thinks Democratic contributors have more money, or perhaps he was simply being opportunistic in some other way. Given the rather pathetic nature of his efforts, I wouldn't assume too much thought went into it. There was once a forger who misspelled Washington's name on the $1 -- yes, $1 -- notes he forged: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/finding-mr-880-case-1-counterfeit-article-1.109016. Some scams just rely on the marks being so gullible they don't care at all.
Nor would I congratulate a criminal on a rather transparent scam, especially if in the long run it ended up doing harm to the campaigns of candidates I support, and more importantly the democratic process such as it is in the States. That someone can still build a web site at 80 is commendable but unremarkable since it requires little skill; the fact that a man has lived 80 years without accumulating wisdom or scruples is disheartening.
As to the price of the vehicle he bought, your crass and immature partisanship is tedious and unhelpful; it's appropriate to a Marxist book club at a fourth-rate college, but this is the Internet and we're supposedly adults.
I'm a cat, but I pretend to be a dog on the internet.
Usually around 1/3 republican, 1/3 democrat, and 1/3 independent (not quite those amounts since there are a few percent registered in other parties) So there are plenty of voters registered in a party, though the registration only matters in states that restrict primary voting to members of that party (but you can change your party registration easily, so that's not much of a barrier)
Not even close. Voter registration has nothing to do with party membership any more than attending a fundraiser at the local Elks Lodge makes you an Elk. Members of a party, like any club, are those who pay regular dues in some fashion, have agreed to participate in and contribute to party/club business, and usually have taken some kind of loyalty oath or pledge. People who are not members cannot call themselves by the party demonym (far too often they do anyway, but they're wrong). So I say again: very few Americans are members of any party, and it's highly unlikely that our criminal mastermind is one of them. If he had been, any party would have expelled him by now (another way you can distinguish membership from voter registration: the parties have no control over the latter).
10% is indeed typical, but If I was an 80-year old, I'd be careful about giving a reason for a bounty-hunter to look for me. I did know a guy who had made a plausibly successful escape out the window when the bounty-hunter showed up, and decided it was a good idea to sneak around the corner and clobber said (large, young, skilled fighter) bounty-hunter with a bit of discarded lumber. Turned out not to be a good idea. But then, setting up a marijuana farm on land he owned and then forgetting to pay the taxes, prompting a visit from the sheriff to post the tax delinquency notice, was also not a good idea. Criminals, like all people, have their brilliant moments and their DOH! moments.
BTW: I assume the reason he targeted Dems is that there are so many running. Kinda like robbing banks because that's where the money is.
No, I just decided to delete my registration here. I got tired of being silently censored by the staff here for my political beliefs. The ElReg editors in their wisdom placed me on their "must vet" list (secretly) which had the effect of holding up my posts while allowing my detractors to freely harass me.
After leaving I found I could read what goes on here with much more aplomb and a lot less disgust. Still slanted tho.
This organization is sick. They don't even see that what they've done is totally wrong and indefensible. I got that impression directly from one of the editors, who didn't even bother denying what they had done to me. BTW, I only signed up again a moment ago, just because I happened to see my name mentioned by my old antagonists. ;-/
I won't be posting under this name after this, because the same censorship would occur again. I wouldn't mind so much if they made it clear to everyone what they were doing to conservatives. It's the sneaky underhanded treatment that ticks me off. And since they were reading all my posts before allowing them on the site, I couldn't expose them for what they are. This is why we conservatives keep saying we're being suppressed by leftists. It's happening.
So enjoy your little protected bubble, guys. ;-/
Not necessarily. If John Smith registered on El Reg as "Big John", then Illuminati decide he needs to be censored, there is not a lot to stop John Smith reregistering as "Bite my finger" and exposing the Illuminati's dastardly plot. It all fits what the comentards can see.
On the other hand, there are lots of other possibilities which also fit the facts as far as the commentards can see them - must of which don't involve censorship or conspiracy.
Icon: The first principle is to avoid concluding that which is not so.
... is that, apparently, '.website' is a TLD now.
It's almost tempting to register website.website and then run a web site at www.website.website. Or should that be website.website.website? (*)
(*) Sadly no .spam TLD, so Viking websites are out.
"while using his previous name – John Gary Rinaldo – which he legally changed to Pierre Dupont in California in 2012."
Is there really no explanation for this here? P'raps a prior bit of sleight-o-hand in the past? Y'kno, right-to-be-forgottenfelonious or sometin?
The Du Ponts are a very well off family, and some have been elected to office. It is possible that the man in question hoped to profit by the reassuring sound of the surname: Dupont sounds like money, governors, and country homes, Rinaldo sounds like nothing in particular. (Apologies to any Rinaldos who might read this, but I think this is correct.)
"Rinaldo sounds like nothing in particular. (Apologies to any Rinaldos who might read this, but I think this is correct.)"
Sounds like a top flight multi-millionaire football player to us right-pondians (Soccer player for left-pondians)
Spelling might be different. I don't follow football, but he's so famous here, even I've heard of him.
That's easy - just check if he's slim enough to fit through that hole. That rather filters out a lot of people, especially given the rising levels of obesity.
That said, maybe that's the perfect camouflage - slim like a maniac, break into a bank via a very small hole and then immediate spend a few days at McDonalds making it appear physically implausible that it could have ever been you.
Sounds like a plan :).
>"And now he is officially considered a fugitive, presumably hoping that people won't assume that an 80-year-old is really a suspected con man on the lam."
Listen up, ladies and gentlemen! Our fugitive has been on the run for 90 minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground, with a zimmer-frame, is 2 miles an hour which gives us a radius of 3 miles! What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Also, bingo halls.
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