For scam artists, con men, swindlers, embezzlers, thieves, fraudsters, and grifters, this is truly the Golden Age. I cannot think of a time when it has been easier to take money, property, assets, and even identities away from people. People that used to rob banks or stagecoaches or trains had to put in some seriously dangerous work–and had to worry about law enforcement or the government coming after them. But in today’s society, theft has become as easy as pushing a few keys on a computer or coming up with an effective sob story–and in many cases, law enforcement does little or nothing about it.
Having traveled to major cities recently, I noticed that their grocery stores, department stores, and pharmacies are laid out quite differently than most stores we have here in the Fox Valley. You cannot believe how much stuff is displayed under lock and key. Baby formula, razors, hygiene products, high-end alcohol, pain and allergy relief pills all require an employee to unlock a case to either hand it to you, or to walk you to the checkout counter. Higher end clothes and shoes are literally strapped to the racks or the display shelves–and stock is kept in the back, not on the floor.
Whenever a retailer like that announces it is closing stores in urban areas, they never single out losses from theft as a reason (which is often is), so social justice warriors just claim racism, and demand that money-losing locations be kept open. And of course, the cost of that loss and all of the security measures needed just to keep merchandise from being stolen are passed along to those of us that actually pay for all of our items. All while local prosecutors refuse to press charges against those who are caught.
The kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother in Arizona provides the one-millionth example of how cryptocurrency exists just to make criminal activity easier to get away with. The kidnapper reportedly demanded payment that way. Gone are the days of kidnappers demanding ransoms in unmarked bills dropped off in briefcases. A “digital wallet” can be traced–if it exists in a regulated exchange. But there are plenty of unregulated exchanges that would provide law enforcement no opportunity to trace who holds the “wallet”.
I follow an account on X (the everything app) that tracks crypto thefts and losses. Every couple of weeks there is some company that has tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto holdings stolen or “lost”. If banks were robbed that often, and for that much cash, we would have to seriously consider taking some federal agents off immigration control and put them on financial institution security. And don’t get local law enforcement officials started on the problems created by crypto ATM’s and the percentage of transactions done on them that are crimes. But efforts to more tightly regulate the crypto industry are met with howls of resistance by those who let the genie out of the bottle–and by a certain resident of the White House (more on why that may be later).
Another account I follow on social media is run by a couple of guys that take scammer calls from India and lead the perpetrators into thinking they have a live fish on the hook, only to continually mess up the instructions to transfer money, or using the remote access software to take control of the scammers’ computers to mess up their operation. Often, they provide the physical location of the phone scam operations (which often employ dozens of people)–but few if any people are ever arrested. They just abandon the building and set up again in some other location.
Speaking of social media, how many times have you fallen for the old “PLEASE REPOST!!’ posts that claim a child has gone missing in the area, or a police officer was hurt on duty, or a church is looking to get donations to help the homeless–just to see a few days later police are warning everyone that those posts are fake? Just as fake as the “Ukrainian women looking for love” and the “Nigerian prince” looking to off-load his fortune out of the country.
I am becoming very reluctant to put “a GoFundMe account has been set up for….” in our news stories. Sure, we know for a fact that a family lost everything in a fire or there are going to be funeral costs following the tragic death of a child. But we never get an accounting for how all of that money is actually spent. Remember the “Bay Park Square Mall Cinnabon Racial Incident”? Hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated to competing on-line giving accounts, with “a cousin” claiming the Muslim couple would use all of the donation to pay for “legal fees”. No lawsuits have been filed yet, so is that $19,000 just sitting in an account?
Which brings me to the grifters. Our divided political society has opened up an exploding revenue stream for those willing to engage in manufactured outrage or victimhood. For example, noted author Ibram X Kendi was given $55-million to establish a Center for Anti-Racism research at Boston University after the publication of his book “How to be an Anti-Racist” and the murder of George Floyd. While Kendi promised groundbreaking research into institutional racism in America and conclaves of anti-racist thinkers on campus. Instead, the “center” produced little in the way of published research, promoted mainly Kendi’s own works, and disbanded within five years–with Kendi leaving Boston U for Howard University. BU officials have little to say about the endeavor, and have resisted calls for a full auditing of the center’s use of that $55-million.
Meanwhile, Candace Owens traded in a career in marketing and journalism to market herself as some sort of “voice of the right in America”. Her unhinged attacks on Jews, Charlie Kirk, and anyone opposed to Donald Trump has garnered her nearly six-million subscribers for her YouTube page, and millions more on other social media platforms. What makes Owens a true grifter is that just ten years ago, she was attacking all of the same people who now serve as her audience and patrons. She posted on her blog site that members of the Tea Party were “bat (guano) crazy and need to die immediately”. She also ravaged Donald Trump and mocked the size of his penis. It’s amazing what the opportunity to cash in can do to your “political beliefs”.
Nearly all of what I’ve talked about so far has involved the taking of money and other assets from people in the private sector. But those losses are dwarfed by what has been stolen from the government. The American Rescue Plan Act, the Paycheck Protection Plan, and all of the other “pandemic relief” programs put welfare and entitlement fraud into hyperdrive. The latest estimates that I can find put the total lost to fraudulent claims at more than $400-billion–and I don’t know if that includes the Minnesota feeding and “learing center” operations. That would be 10% of all the money governments spent on COVID-19 relief programs.
If there is any positives that might come out of the Minnesota fraud schemes, it could be much greater scrutiny of non-profit organizations and non-government operations (known as NGO’s) and their use of government funding. Just this month, Fox 11 TV in Green Bay brought to light concerns about the operations at Newcap–an NGO that is supposed to provide services to low-income residents of Northeast Wisconsin. Instead, the CEO of the organization saw her salary increase by 142% in just a couple of years, her bonuses were tied to the amount of money the organization brought in, that funds designated for construction projects were funneled to a construction company launched by her now ex-husband, and that firm did work on her own house. And all of this took place while Newcap was running two-million dollar deficits the last two years.
In case you are wondering, organizations like Newcap are audited–but the auditors just make sure the books are legitimate. They don’t pull every receipt or examine every check that is issued. Boards of Directors do not review every transaction. And when these groups report back to the government bodies providing them with the cash, their presentations focus on very broad overviews of spending–and not detailed spreadsheets and financial reports. “We did a lot of good last year” is usually meet with nods and smiles from the elected officials.
I hope you didn’t think I was going to end this My Two Cents without mentioning the biggest thief and fraudster raking in ill-gotten cash right now did you? According to a report in The New Yorker magazine, President Donald Trump and his family have made an estimated $4-billion dollars from “business ventures” tied directly to his role as President. An invented crypto-coin (whose purchasers include an Emerati “spy sheik” (right before allowing the UAE access to prized AI chips produced in the US) and other national public investment funds, development agreements with countries tied to our political interests, “donations” from corporations for projects at the White House and for the new “Trump Accounts”, Qatar “donating” a new Air Force One jet that will go with Trump when he leaves office (ostensibly to be used for his “Presidential library”), and his sons being named to Boards of Directors of numerous corporations (just like Hunter Biden) have all provided major new sources of income for the family.
And like in so many of the other examples I’ve noted today, those would can put an end to this thievery sit on their hands and do nothing–costing all of us more. Like I said, it’s a great time to be a stealer. I just wish I could say the same about my favorite football team from Pittsburgh.
