Alleged Ponzi mastermind on the run from FBI hid in lake with sea-scooter, collared after he surfaced half-hour later A man accused of stealing $35m from victims of a convoluted algorithm-based Ponzi scheme was collared by FBI agents after he tried to flee using a submersible scooter in a frigid lake. Matthew Piercey, 44, of Palo Cedro, California, was arrested on Monday after he was charged with 31 felony counts, including wire fraud, mail …
The smart move would be to put the millions into BitCoin, encrypt it with a strong password, copy it onto multiple media (USB keys, hard drives, DVD-R discs, whatever), and distribute those media to friends / family / associates. When you get out of prison, go visit all your old friends and see (a) who bothered to keep the device, and (b) who is willing to return it to you for the lowest fee.
Of course, all this relies on knowing exactly when the cops are coming and having the time to perform all the steps above before you're caught. Most criminals are greedy and prefer to spend the money immediately on tangible goods, rather than invest for the long-term.
...fancy get-aways always facinate me. Shame for him he never had a sub setup. He could of climbed in that and stayed under for a long time with no bubbles. Although, as it's a lake and I assume they saw him go in, he wouldn't of been able to go anywhere. I also assume a mini sub would probably wipe out the $35million
> also assume a mini sub would probably wipe out the $35million
A rebreather scuba setup doesn't release bubbles, and whilst more expensive (and requiring greater maintenance) than an air tank and regulator, it doesn't cost millions.
Of course, that's only a part of the getaway plan... you need advance warning to defrost the decoy dummy corpse and dress it in your clothes, then make your way to the underwater entrance of your pre-built hideout.
I can see we share follow the same logic in escape route planning, you've got most of my points too ;-)
For the corpse, it's probably an advantage if it can be left somewhere it's going to have time to decompose enough to confuse the investigators, so could be left to defrost on it's own. Really though, you need somewhere warm, preferrably with sharks/alligators to take the blame.
Think I might be watching too many heist movies...
Nah, Trump's setups all look pretty standard.
If you want to see a _real_ shitshow, though, check out BLM / Black Lives Matter (you know it's originally and still primarily a company, right? Pretends to be a charity but doesn't actually do anything except accept donations and pay dividends.)
If you've had any exposure to money-laundering or tax-sheltering/income-hiding, you'll recognise its funding structure immediately.
Commenter might be referring to UKBLM who raised £1.2M on Gofundme, despite there being no associated company, charity, nor anything that actually states what they actually do or will do with this cash they are collecting. Their twitter is nothing but a retweet machine. https://www.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund
Hadn't heard of that one.
No, I was referring to the original US company. Been around for years ; they just saw a recent opportunity and planted their existing flag front¢re.
My favourite of the handful of shareholder-directors describes herself as a "Performance Artist" who for years now only puts on about one show a year (free, too). But they all have nice houses and nice lives since they set up the company, so that's nice.
Good grief, if your master escape plan involves an underwater getaway (in winter!) then you'd better spend some of your ill-gotten gains on:
1) A rebreather tank so you don't leave a trail of bubbles (and maybe a faster model submersible?)
2) A decoy air tank to fake your own drowning
3) A decoy body (optional) - depends on access to a morgue/corrupt undertaker
4) A covered location to surface in & second getaway vehicle (the most common one on local roads c.f. Drive, The Sentinel, etc.)
5) Route to your non-extradition country of choice with home already set up (Heat, etc.)
Various other steps too, but jeez, if you're going to go to the effort of maintaining a Ponzi scheme, plan the out!
He'll have plenty of time to do 20/20 hindsight planning in the pokey, I'm sure...
For the record, no extradition treaty it doesn't mean you don't get extradited: it means that decisions are taken ad hoc in an individual basis and without the guarantees that an extradition treaty may confer.
What you want is citizenship of a country that doesn't extradite its citizens, and move there. Here's the menu, pick one (or more): https://www.loc.gov/law/help/extradition-of-citizens/chart.php
see Kevin Underhill's piece on Piercey. Underhill has covered a number of unsuccessful (and one successful!) waterborne getaway attempts, and a number of failed Ponzi schemes, so his post is replete with links to other amusing tales of a similar sort.
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