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What was the flaw? Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? > He says he managed to graduate without attending class. In order to obtain

What was the flaw? Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? > He says he managed to graduate without attending class. In order to obtain class notes, he threw an annual keg party where entry required classmates to dump their notes in a bin. I sure wouldn't want that guy as my lawyer.

aswanson 10y ago
The flaw was that the early online trading systems didn't include provisions for reg-T, which stopped leverage at I think 50 percent of your balance. So, you could borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock with a thousand dollar account balance. He goes into detail on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqUG2_cmZ6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqUG2_cmZ6I
jonwachob91 10y ago
> Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? I don't think he meant using the money he was loaned to pay for classes but using the money the loan provides for living expenses. That money is completely up to you to figure out what to spend it on. I could be wrong about that though...
- chickenfries 10y ago
  I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company." There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally. Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT (food stamps) at the grocery store. I don't find these details of Sacca's story admirable.
  - Chris2048 10y ago
    > would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT The former happens so rarely it doesn't get much attention at all.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    If he had flamed out, we'd probably hear a sob story about the oppression of student loans.
    - redm 10y ago
      He could have taken the easy way out of his problems and declared bankruptcy. I think most would have, but he paid back all his debts, the hard way; that seems admirable to me.
aceofspades19 10y ago
Well there definitely is no criminal law against starting a company with student loans. It would be up to the actual contract he signed which might not say anything about how you spend the money as long as you you aren't lying about anything in the application(ie. amount of income you make, actually being registered for classes etc).

aswanson 10y ago

The flaw was that the early online trading systems didn't include provisions for reg-T, which stopped leverage at I think 50 percent of your balance. So, you could borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock with a thousand dollar account balance. He goes into detail on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqUG2_cmZ6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqUG2_cmZ6I

jonwachob91 10y ago

> Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? I don't think he meant using the money he was loaned to pay for classes but using the money the loan provides for living expenses. That money is completely up to you to figure out what to spend it on. I could be wrong about that though...

chickenfries 10y ago
I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company." There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally. Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT (food stamps) at the grocery store. I don't find these details of Sacca's story admirable.
- Chris2048 10y ago
  > would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT The former happens so rarely it doesn't get much attention at all.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  If he had flamed out, we'd probably hear a sob story about the oppression of student loans.
  - redm 10y ago
    He could have taken the easy way out of his problems and declared bankruptcy. I think most would have, but he paid back all his debts, the hard way; that seems admirable to me.

aceofspades19 10y ago

Well there definitely is no criminal law against starting a company with student loans. It would be up to the actual contract he signed which might not say anything about how you spend the money as long as you you aren't lying about anything in the application(ie. amount of income you make, actually being registered for classes etc).