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ObtotheR t1_j3mspv8 wrote

More time in prison than the bankers that crashed our economy multiple times in the past two decades.

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NLuvWithAnIndian t1_j3mvoj7 wrote

Sad but true. That Wells Fargo exec who peed on a woman mid-flight will get more time for that than anyone got.

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ObtotheR t1_j3mw1ve wrote

That’s what still fucking infuriates me. None of them got any punishment for the lives the destroyed. My dad is working in his 70s because his retirement 401k practically disappeared. None of them got anything but a fucking bailout to save their asses.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j3n0rl6 wrote

System working as intended. It's in their best interest to not go after each other all the time, at the expense of everyone else.

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clifmo t1_j3o1kez wrote

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

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ONESNZER0S t1_j3p14w3 wrote

Wasn't that a relatively small player though? They never did anything to the big name execs.

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azurleaf t1_j3r1c2d wrote

Many people don't realize that some mortgage processors, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were completely bought out and taken over by the US Government for the 2008 fiasco.

They were publicly traded companies, and still are some of the largest in the world. Part of the bailout deal was a hostile takeover, and that they send all profits to the US Treasury indefinitely. The entire company was basically gutted and replaced.

Not every high ranking rich dude got off scott free, but a lot of them did.

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goodDayM t1_j3o8ek8 wrote

> his retirement 401k practically disappeared.

Out of curiosity, what did he choose to invest in? Did he choose to go all-in on one or a few stocks? Or did he choose to sell all his investments near the bottom in spring 2009?

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Jkay064 t1_j3oriu0 wrote

That’s an easy one to deduce. The poor old guy panic-sold at the bottom. A guy who rode the commuter bus with me did the exact same thing.

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goodDayM t1_j3oz1mo wrote

Sure that was my guess too, but I thought I'd ask him. And in that case, if they just rode it out instead of panic selling they would have been fine.

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clifmo t1_j3o1hqf wrote

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

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Wsbkingretard t1_j3nderd wrote

We should have the right to pee on everyone who own more than 20 million$

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Illegal-Product t1_j3nfc0y wrote

I don’t blame the exec. Whats one woman compared to crapping on everyone. The guys is probably shook.

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joshhupp t1_j3n9nnh wrote

3 years more time than the failed businessman who opened a sham real estate university, allowed PPP loans to go to business that didn't need the money, hoarded classified documents, and sold NFTs of his own image.

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GlorytoGlorzo t1_j3oq5q4 wrote

And his kids stole from their fake cancer charity, too. What was their punishment again?

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clifmo t1_j3o1fg0 wrote

Fun fact! I work in a building that was massive loan services processing center specializing in mortgage backed securities. The feds definitely raided and confiscated the whole building and all company assets. The owner was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 30 years back in 2011. There was an entire episode of CNBC American Greed about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor,Bean%26_Whitaker

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AudibleNod OP t1_j3mr1zh wrote

This is the lady from the heartwarming story of a homeless vet giving his money to help her out.

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rudolf_the_red t1_j3n167n wrote

wow. that story was so believable too. this is the kind of shit that makes me more and more jaded when i hear stories about people falling on hard times or whatever.

it's getting so frustrating.

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BrownBoy____ t1_j3nsodv wrote

Almost like charity isn't a good solution for systemic issues like poverty alleviation.

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nothis t1_j3ova9e wrote

For real. America loves these headlines but I’m like… we just celebrated a victim of systemic poverty winning the lottery. And hey, it was a scam all along, lol.

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51CK54DW0RLD t1_j3n4wij wrote

Everything is a scam

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joshchandra t1_j3nifn9 wrote

I've never donated to anything on GoFundMe, ever. Until you actually see the person and talk to them and hear their story, there is almost no way to verify things if you're too far removed from the situation. Give in other ways like time and energy, not money. And even then, give to them directly, not through GFM which keeps taking a cut and leeching off of people's compassion.

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pipinngreppin t1_j3om7fu wrote

I don’t know. I’ve given to people who have had their house burn down, lost a husband, wife, or kid to an accident, or sustained life changing injuries. It sucks that people need charity, but a lot of them really can’t be faked.

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joshchandra t1_j3qgqc3 wrote

That's fine. The majority of them probably isn't. I'd still rather go find the contacts directly and land at least some sort of personal connection, even if briefly, than just pseudo-anonymously go through GFM.

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Hojalu t1_j3pquiu wrote

I run a tiny nonprofit, and we've benefited from a few GoFundMe fundraisers. The fees (for nonprofits at least) seem to be worth it; GFM has provided us with a reliable service. Our little fundraisers haven't reached people too far removed from us, but that's OK. It's enough that we can reach family members and friends and friends-of-friends; for that it's worked well.

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snowtol t1_j3r7r5x wrote

Dude, stop trying to scam us with your comment.

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thinspell t1_j3nh5dx wrote

Good, hopefully Brittany Dawn is next. The state of Texas is suing her for scamming many with her “fitness plans.” She “helped” a homeless man with his alcoholism by raising around 25k on gofundme but… Who knows where it went? She transitioned to running a trendy Christian ministry that charges hundreds and also is “fostering” babies while monetizing them for her content. Would love to see her held accountable.

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The_Water_Horse t1_j3oftyh wrote

Brittany Dawn is terrible and I really hope her GFM scheme, as well as allllll the other awful things she does, gets more attention soon. The recent monetized fostering was unbelievable.

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Tallgirl4u t1_j3r02t7 wrote

Came here to say the same thing. Brittany is such an evil vile person. When I saw the headline I thought it was about her, sickening we have more than one story of people doing this.

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Islerothebull t1_j3msj4d wrote

She will do more time than SBF.

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reccenters t1_j3n0fyq wrote

SBF stole money from rich people, he's fucked.

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jctwok t1_j3nmx6v wrote

If the couple hadn't gotten greedy and had given the homeless guy his full share, they probably would have gotten away with it.

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mangledmonkey t1_j3o8qfw wrote

Except the homeless man was also charged and took part in the fraudulent act but must have decided that 75k wasn't enough when he heard how much the go fund me really made. They're all greedy and stupid together.

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ripSammy101 t1_j3oy16n wrote

Why would you turn them in when you’re homeless and you can get $75k…

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mangledmonkey t1_j3p97p4 wrote

Greed. Someone always has more.

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ripSammy101 t1_j3p9lyp wrote

What? Getting 75k is a once in a lifetime occurrence. Homeless dude should have just accepted the money

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YlangScent t1_j3q1m6m wrote

Not all homeless people are just unlucky and unfortunate. Some are just really stupid.

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DrinkenDrunk t1_j3qbh3u wrote

People who end up homeless aren’t generally known for wise financial decisions.

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gimpisgawd t1_j3qmn22 wrote

Why only take 75k when they have a lot more to lose? He got probation, they both got jail time and have to pay GoFundMe back.

0

dblan9 t1_j3mv0jd wrote

Has anyone ever gotten away with one of these donation scams?

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AussieJeffProbst t1_j3mvx1s wrote

The only reason they didnt is because they only gave the homeless guy $75k. He found out they made over $400k and turned their asses in.

Its entirely possible if they had given him a bigger chunk they would have gotten away with it.

In case you're wondering the homeless guy was in on it too...

Edit: Here you go: https://www.inquirer.com/news/johnny-bobbitt-gofundme-scam-probation-20221003.html

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Strificus t1_j3mxksg wrote

Did he lose the $75k?

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AussieJeffProbst t1_j3myze4 wrote

Oh yeah. He got lucky though, in that he's the only one out of the three who didn't get sent to jail.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/johnny-bobbitt-gofundme-scam-probation-20221003.html

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CandidEstablishment0 t1_j3n6ewn wrote

I hate paying to read

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crazypyro23 t1_j3ps5ra wrote

And this is why you always make sure the terms are equitable beforehand. Come on, this is like Heist 101!

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AussieJeffProbst t1_j3qlj43 wrote

Well the OG fundraiser was for $10k. I think it blew up and greed got the better of them.

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AudibleNod OP t1_j3mxa1e wrote

The ones that get away probably never make the news. It's probably less viral and less news-worthy. While at the same time equally heart-warming and heartstring tugging.

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hizeto t1_j3o50kn wrote

Think a youtuber did a "socia experiment' where he gave a homeless guy $100 to see what he'd do with it. The homeless guy bought food for his freinds and people were touched by the story they donated hundreds thousands to the homeless man. Later it was revealed that the social experiment was staged. The homeless man also died of alcoholism and hte youtuber kept the money

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Advice2Anyone t1_j3nid9n wrote

Literally all the time, problem here was how much money got raised and it got caught in the news cycle and then homeless dude turned them in

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DrinkenDrunk t1_j3qba4b wrote

If they got away with it we wouldn’t know it was a scam. So, probably.

1

Puncho666 t1_j3nzw8c wrote

Yet the former president scams a whole country and nothing?

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40mm_of_freedom t1_j3o310g wrote

They honestly would have gotten away with it if that had given the dude like 75%.

Dude probably would have been happy and they got a bunch of cash. Their next worry would be explaining it on taxes.

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YlangScent t1_j3q20f1 wrote

The dude was in on the scam, so it's hard to say if he would have ever been happy and not just chased for more money.

Also it's not unlikely the gofundme by itself is enough to settle the tax question. Very few situations actually get a full investigated audit.

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40mm_of_freedom t1_j3qlnuj wrote

They gave the dude 20% and he wanted more. I bet if they had either split it 50/50 or given the majority he would have been happy.

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YlangScent t1_j419jgv wrote

How do you know? This was obviously a highly unstable and impulsive man since him pressing charges against them is what lead to all of them getting caught to begin with.

He got a massive amount of money for doing absolutely nothing. It's hard to believe he wouldn't have continued asking for more even if they gave him 90%.

0

squidking78 t1_j3ojqb9 wrote

Do this as a regular person, get prison time. Do this on wallstreet, get congratulated by your peers and maybe pay a “cost of doing business” fine.

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comic360guy t1_j3oyo2u wrote

So she's basically earning $133 grand a year for 3 years off in taxpayer funded food and shelter program. Not a bad trade-off.

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YlangScent t1_j3q2hk0 wrote

Read the ruling (or at least the article); she has to pay back all the money.

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kr3wchris t1_j3q2wrt wrote

They have felonies for the rest of their life though

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oeuvre-and-out t1_j3nb711 wrote

Serious question: How is this different from the BLM Foundation (Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation) that collected millions after the George Floyd murder and then bought multiple million dollar homes with some of the money? I'm sure no donor expected their cash to be used for that purpose.

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ghostdokes t1_j3nehvv wrote

Was Black Lives Matter even a charity? Its a business through and through as far as I know, the same way Trump made money with his MAGA merch business.

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oeuvre-and-out t1_j3nfsol wrote

Yes. It's a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit corporation

> A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax. 501(c)(3) tax-exemptions apply to entities that are organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes...

But I don't think that's relevant to my question. This couple was convicted of wire fraud. IANAL but logically any corporate entity (for profit or non-profit) could be guilty of wire fraud.

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Thanos_Stomps t1_j3nq64m wrote

First, this woman was dumb enough to attach her name to it. You incorporate and you have more protections (nonprofit entities are typically incorporated).

Second, idk all the ins and outs of this story in its entirety but there are at least two scenarios off the top of my head that would allow for the BLM org get away with it. The first is that the BLM ceo gets paid a fat salary. The irs is only going to investigate and sanction a nonprofit that is paying a ceo exorbitantly more than other CEOs of a similar sized nonprofit.

The other scenario is that the org bought the mansion and used it as a headquarters. This wouldn’t even raise any red flags since places need to have brick and mortar operations and there isn’t much difference between an expensive downtown Manhattan office and a mansion in price, but the location can be justified as it’s a grassroots movement and needs the space and to be need the suburbs.

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oeuvre-and-out t1_j3qvhfj wrote

Thanks for a good reply. Yes, the BLM case is more nuanced and their corp status allows some discretion in how the funds were/are spent. I'm not obsessed on it but general press reporting rasies questions on corp malfeasance. I think a good comparison is the current SBF (the crypto guy) investigation, just that he was dealing in billions and BLM got millions.

1

Maliagirl1314 t1_j3omwl7 wrote

I remember this and remember when the homeless man sued them. They're despicable people for lying to so many just so they can buy expensive cars and handbags and go to Vegas. Awful humans

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Meodrome t1_j3q0zui wrote

Wish this law would apply to politicians that blatantly lie about their resumes. After all, they raised a lot of money with those lies.

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Narrator-to-gods t1_j3nvf5m wrote

Great work. Now with this on her resume she fits as a future Republican. The dogs of democracy.

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Medical_Gate_5721 t1_j3o42cf wrote

3 years seems extremely light to me but I suppose it's reasonable.

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xeq937 t1_j3rtwge wrote

Gov't sponsored scams weren't available for comment

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RMZ13 t1_j3rv4ju wrote

Too bad she didn’t also try to overthrow the government. She could have gotten a blanket pardon.

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khamelean t1_j3rwj5h wrote

3 years in prison in exchange for $400,000??? I’d take that deal!!

1

Salt_Laugh t1_j3n83by wrote

Makes me wonder though, why the finders of the failed Coup haven’t seen any jail time

−2

OnceAndFutureHippo t1_j3nmj5w wrote

Maybe a dumb question: why is this a crime? It's a really horrible thing to do, but don't people lie to other people to get money all the time?

I'm thinking specifically about politicians and what they say to fundraise.

−2

SteroidAccount t1_j3nquad wrote

It’s fraud

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macgyvertape t1_j3o5958 wrote

Now I'm wondering about the romance writer Susan Meachen who faked her death on social media and had people donate to her gofundme for funeral expenses and her family. That's pretty egregious and while I doubt anyone would get any money back I wonder if there are grounds to sue for fraud.

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squidking78 t1_j3ogfis wrote

Based on this, absolutely she should be in prison.

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MischeifCat t1_j3poo3z wrote

This story made me think of her, too. It might take a long time but I am keeping my eye on her story to find out if she gets hit with legal consequences. It might all end up depending on how much money she earned from the fraud.

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TheLunarWhale t1_j3p9e13 wrote

It's not a crime any more than donating money to your local house of worship in their stupid scam basket that gets passed around.

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TogepiMain t1_j3sjdq4 wrote

Well you say that but one of them actually is a crime?

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UnionThug1733 t1_j3pok0a wrote

No don’t get me wrong is this a dick move bad people yeah. But aside from scale how is this any different then a panhandler lying about his situation or a preacher promise of miracles for filling the coffers. Like I just don’t see the crime justifying the time in this instant. Idk had they only raise a few hundred would they have been charged in the same fashion

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