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(CNN)   Scammer scammed investors out of $4 billion and fled   (cnn.com) divider line
    More: Awkward, Fraud, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ruja Ignatova, United States Department of Justice, beaming Ignatova, fourth quarter, Prosecutor, court documents  
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5336 clicks; posted to Main » on 22 Jan 2023 at 1:38 PM (9 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



95 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest


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2023-01-22 11:29:53 AM  
haha awesome move

Greece would be an excellent place to disappear. lots of tiny islands, corrupt officials, and excellent weather
 
2023-01-22 11:37:11 AM  
$4B can buy a gal a whole lot of privacy and if she's smart, she'll tamp down any bit of ego, and just live well.

Get in, grab the cash, and GTFO. Going back again and again, that's a sucker's game. That's just doing it for the thrill, and half the thrill is the idea of getting caught. The best criminals are the ones who knew when to get out, and STAY out.
 
2023-01-22 11:45:39 AM  

hubiestubert: $4B can buy a gal a whole lot of privacy and if she's smart, she'll tamp down any bit of ego, and just live well.

Get in, grab the cash, and GTFO. Going back again and again, that's a sucker's game. That's just doing it for the thrill, and half the thrill is the idea of getting caught. The best criminals are the ones who knew when to get out, and STAY out.


Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 12:45:42 PM  
She looks like that fortune teller...The one that's going to tell you that your mom died because of a curse on your family and to end it, you'll have to bury $10,000 in a local park at midnight under the jungle gym in the playground.

Yeah I'd invest my life savings with her.

/s
 
2023-01-22 12:57:44 PM  

Tr0mBoNe: haha awesome move

Greece would be an excellent place to disappear. lots of tiny islands, corrupt officials, and excellent weather


Yeah but you don't stay at the destination of your last traceable method of travel.  After changing wardrobe, cutting your hair and developing a limp you pay cash to take the ferry to the next island.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Pick up the new identity you set up years ago and travel to Turkey. Catch a flight out to India. Live quietly in a rented compound with beautiful views.
 
2023-01-22 1:39:39 PM  
has anyone checked Mar-A-Lard_Ass?
 
2023-01-22 1:40:03 PM  
lol you crypto morons
 
2023-01-22 1:42:30 PM  
Bless her Romani heart. I bet her ancestors are proud.
 
2023-01-22 1:42:42 PM  
"Scammer scammed scammers" is most correct.
 
2023-01-22 1:43:23 PM  

gameshowhost: lol you crypto morons


"It's not a pyramid scheme, it's a reverse funnel system."

"Turn it upside down."

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 1:44:11 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
TWX
2023-01-22 1:45:50 PM  

Too-Tall: Tr0mBoNe: haha awesome move

Greece would be an excellent place to disappear. lots of tiny islands, corrupt officials, and excellent weather

Yeah but you don't stay at the destination of your last traceable method of travel.  After changing wardrobe, cutting your hair and developing a limp you pay cash to take the ferry to the next island.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Pick up the new identity you set up years ago and travel to Turkey. Catch a flight out to India. Live quietly in a rented compound with beautiful views.


Looking at the various FBI photos, she could pass as from anywhere from as west as Italy to as east as Bangladesh.  I don't know what languages she speaks, but a few billion dollars and she can set herself up as the de-facto countess of whatever nonextradition region she chooses to live in, the $100,000 reward is so small that a community benefiting off of her would not turn her in for that little a sum, particularly if she invests in community assets like pediatric clinics and old-folks homes.  If she managed to abscond with say, two billion, she could spend a quarter of that and still have more money to live on that she could ever use while living as a fugitive unless she wants to literally set up her own private nation-state.

If she's smart she'll hire some lieutenants for enough salary that screwing her over or turning her in would not be to their advantage, and use them to manage her security.  She'll use lawyers to manage her real estate and other expensive property, and will avoid ever having her own name on anything other than documents that are protected from scrutiny.

The one thing that surprises me is her having used her real name and her real identity in setting up the scam.  It seems like she would have been safer using an alias to set up the business, obfuscating her true upbringing with false but plausible-sounding fiction, so that it would be hard to connect who the actual scammer is to the scam.  That still might not allow her to live under her real identity afterward, but if the scam identity were vague enough then they might not have even as much as the places she grew up or people she may have been close with to keep tabs on.

Now, how she may get caught; if the biography is correct then she loves the high-life, loves dressing up, being the most ostentatious.  It's difficult to lay-low even in the lap of luxury if one is accustomed to showing off, particularly if that showing-off comes with making it known who she is.  But then again, we don't really know if that's who she is deep-down inside, or if she concocted that for the scam and she's fine with not receiving public recognition.  But even then, if she tries to participate in exclusive circles, she may reveal who she is if only out of process of elimination.
 
2023-01-22 1:47:22 PM  
WaitWaitWait...a huge scam involving cryptocurrency!?!!!? That's unpossible!

If you didn't see that crypto was always built to be a scam, you're the mark...
 
2023-01-22 1:49:02 PM  
This is the problem with crypto. It's not the concept itself, sure, I could see something like this working, even for legit purposes. It's a sub-concept, the whole "who needs regulation" shiat that is causing it to crater. Unfortunately, these idiots won't get the message. While we my have over regulated many aspects of life, they are there for a reason. And it's usually for OUR protection.
 
2023-01-22 1:49:45 PM  
My money is on her already being dead and the money gone to whomever offed her.  Probably a lawyer
 
2023-01-22 1:49:57 PM  
Too late to beat the "haha! Crypto morons!"

But keep in mind the bulk of the people she scammed were the poorest of the poor and the least educated in the world.  People in Africa were $10 is a lot of money.

She deserves massive prison time.
 
TWX
2023-01-22 1:53:45 PM  

Autoerotic Defenestration: [Fark user image 568x440]


No it isn't.

She's a money black-hole, like some obscenely wealthy people are.  She's a money-sink, money goes to her to disappear from the economy, it doesn't see investment because illicit money is very difficult to invest.

Most people live close enough hand-to-mouth that most of their money continues to work in the economy.  They spend most of what they make, and if they're participating in the banking system then even their insured savings still participates in the economy.  The money is respent and respent.  The concept is referred to as the velocity of money.
 
2023-01-22 1:54:21 PM  
That's why you have to blow up a skyscraper and some FBI helicopters before you disappear. When you steal 4 billion, they will find you.
 
2023-01-22 1:54:41 PM  
Greta should start a Twitter fight with her.
 
2023-01-22 1:54:43 PM  
Go girl! I'm more upset that the government is wasting resources chasing crypto scammers.
 
2023-01-22 1:56:31 PM  
That backdrop really has an "Eye of Sauron" vibe.
 
2023-01-22 1:58:27 PM  
Did anyone else think TFA was about Elizabeth Holmes?
 
TWX
2023-01-22 1:58:55 PM  

Snort: My money is on her already being dead and the money gone to whomever offed her.  Probably a lawyer


I could see that.  If she set-up shop somewhere lacking general extradition and trusted a local lawfirm to manage her affairs, a partner might well realize that with her resources he could do away with her but still manage the estate for his own benefit easily enough, especially if she's striving to remain anonymous so no one knows who she is.

Also could be a banker, and for much the same reason.
 
2023-01-22 1:59:59 PM  
I should sell hyperlinks to illustrated pictures of monkeys to idiots.
 
2023-01-22 2:01:31 PM  
Authorities say OneCoin was a pyramid scheme that defrauded people

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 2:01:43 PM  
Fools Parted From Money...

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 2:02:22 PM  
$4 billion and the reward for information leading to her capture is just $100,000?
 
2023-01-22 2:02:57 PM  

Mikey1969: It's not the concept itself, sure, I could see something like this working, even for legit purposes


Well there's the problem.
You think it can be "legit".
 
2023-01-22 2:03:39 PM  
well  i wood !.
imgsrv2.voi.idView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 2:06:08 PM  

TWX: Autoerotic Defenestration: [Fark user image 568x440]


it doesn't see investment because illicit money is very difficult to invest.


Fark user imageView Full Size
 
TWX
2023-01-22 2:08:12 PM  

WTP 2: well  i wood !.[imgsrv2.voi.id image 850x566]


You say that for all the ladies though.  Could be Katharine Hepburn in the 1994 Love Affair or that scary naked old lady from The Shining and we'd still get the same response from you!
 
Azz
2023-01-22 2:08:34 PM  

WTP 2: well  i wood !.[imgsrv2.voi.id image 850x566]


A good cleavage can make an average man do stupid things. Just imagine what it does to the brains of crypto incels. She could be selling self castration tools and they'd line up in droves
 
2023-01-22 2:08:36 PM  
Crypto?

*click*

Duh.
 
2023-01-22 2:12:31 PM  

Too-Tall: Tr0mBoNe: haha awesome move

Greece would be an excellent place to disappear. lots of tiny islands, corrupt officials, and excellent weather

Yeah but you don't stay at the destination of your last traceable method of travel.  After changing wardrobe, cutting your hair and developing a limp you pay cash to take the ferry to the next island.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Pick up the new identity you set up years ago and travel to Turkey. Catch a flight out to India. Live quietly in a rented compound with beautiful views.


I found D.B. Cooper's Fark account.
 
2023-01-22 2:12:37 PM  
"Investors"

Sure, Jan.
 
2023-01-22 2:13:40 PM  

Dustin_00: $4 billion and the reward for information leading to her capture is just $100,000?


They WOULD offer more - but she has it all.
 
2023-01-22 2:13:44 PM  
I like how the FBI says this crypto is a scam but the other ones are legit.
 
2023-01-22 2:16:07 PM  

Dustin_00: $4 billion and the reward for information leading to her capture is just $100,000?


"I'll give you $200,000 to piss off."

      "Ok".
 
2023-01-22 2:17:10 PM  
lol samepicture.gif

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 2:21:57 PM  

I hereby demand that I be given a Fark account: I like how the FBI says this crypto is a scam but the other ones are legit.


It's crazy to me that such a blatant pyramid scheme is being allowed to soak up so much money, even after it became the de facto currency of drug cartels and human traffickers. I know governments are slow to react to stuff sometimes but they have allowed this crap to go on for a loooooong time. Which, I'm guessing, means that they're profiting from it.
 
2023-01-22 2:24:33 PM  

sirrerun: "Investors"

Sure, Jan.


"Flock" is under copyright to Religion IncTMand "Greedy Morons" is too obvious, even for them.

What's left?
 
2023-01-22 2:25:16 PM  

TWX: WTP 2: well  i wood !.[imgsrv2.voi.id image 850x566]

You say that for all the ladies though.  Could be Katharine Hepburn in the 1994 Love Affair or that scary naked old lady from The Shining and we'd still get the same response from you!


i do try and save it for the bustier ones.
and thanks for noticing.  (  .  ) (  .  )
 
2023-01-22 2:28:53 PM  

TWX: Too-Tall: Tr0mBoNe: haha awesome move

Greece would be an excellent place to disappear. lots of tiny islands, corrupt officials, and excellent weather

Yeah but you don't stay at the destination of your last traceable method of travel.  After changing wardrobe, cutting your hair and developing a limp you pay cash to take the ferry to the next island.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Pick up the new identity you set up years ago and travel to Turkey. Catch a flight out to India. Live quietly in a rented compound with beautiful views.

Looking at the various FBI photos, she could pass as from anywhere from as west as Italy to as east as Bangladesh.  I don't know what languages she speaks, but a few billion dollars and she can set herself up as the de-facto countess of whatever nonextradition region she chooses to live in, the $100,000 reward is so small that a community benefiting off of her would not turn her in for that little a sum, particularly if she invests in community assets like pediatric clinics and old-folks homes.  If she managed to abscond with say, two billion, she could spend a quarter of that and still have more money to live on that she could ever use while living as a fugitive unless she wants to literally set up her own private nation-state.

If she's smart she'll hire some lieutenants for enough salary that screwing her over or turning her in would not be to their advantage, and use them to manage her security.  She'll use lawyers to manage her real estate and other expensive property, and will avoid ever having her own name on anything other than documents that are protected from scrutiny.

The one thing that surprises me is her having used her real name and her real identity in setting up the scam.  It seems like she would have been safer using an alias to set up the business, obfuscating her true upbringing with false but plausible-sounding fiction, so that it would be hard to connect who the actual scammer is to the scam.  That still might not allow her to live under her real identity afterward, but if the scam identity were vague enough then they might not have even as much as the places she grew up or people she may have been close with to keep tabs on.

Now, how she may get caught; if the biography is correct then she loves the high-life, loves dressing up, being the most ostentatious.  It's difficult to lay-low even in the lap of luxury if one is accustomed to showing off, particularly if that showing-off comes with making it known who she is.  But then again, we don't really know if that's who she is deep-down inside, or if she concocted that for the scam and she's fine with not receiving public recognition.  But even then, if she tries to participate in exclusive circles, she may reveal who she is if only out of process of elimination.


All valid points. Perhaps she thought it was legit in her own mind at first, realized the business model wasn't sustainable and the panicked and fled?

Maybe she's been murdered already?

Perhaps she used her real name not just for the image of validity, but because she didn't like her past and was already set on abandoning it. Maybe she's been a recluse all along, but did this one final acting job for the cash to fund a dream lifestyle of being hidden from view,
 
2023-01-22 2:32:01 PM  

ZMugg: sirrerun: "Investors"

Sure, Jan.

"Flock" is under copyright to Religion IncTMand "Greedy Morons" is too obvious, even for them.

What's left?


The correct term, used from the 1910s until the 1970s, was "Sucker". We need to put that word back in the vernacular, instead of "cryptocurrency investor".
 
2023-01-22 2:32:38 PM  

stuhayes2010: Too late to beat the "haha! Crypto morons!"


i specifically stated "lol you crypto morons" so no you're not too late.
 
2023-01-22 2:35:53 PM  
All these venture capitalists are supposedly the smartest people, but it's amazing how often they get suckered.
 
2023-01-22 2:37:52 PM  

TWX: WTP 2: well  i wood !.[imgsrv2.voi.id image 850x566]

You say that for all the ladies though.  Could be Katharine Hepburn in the 1994 Love Affair or that scary naked old lady from The Shining and we'd still get the same response from you!


$4b is $4b.
 
2023-01-22 2:40:07 PM  
DNRTFA,  I'm pretty sure I know where to find him.


Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-01-22 2:43:05 PM  
Hope they at least got nudes from her.
 
2023-01-22 2:48:11 PM  
Another crypto scam, it is almost like it was invented just to scam people.
 
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