5 ms·

I don't understand how he didn't get into trouble for what he did. Why wasn't Secret Service able to prosecute him?

by therein 12y ago

shubb 12y ago
What did he do? I'm reading this and understanding that he bought real dollar bills as sheets, then had them perforated so they were easy to tear off...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- nmrm 12y ago
  He did nothing illegal, but (admittedly) acted a bit dodgy with the wrong (or right, if you want a good story) sorts of people.
bgc 12y ago
What he did is not illegal but perhaps not very smart as the uncut sheets of currency that are for sale by the BEP cost (significantly) more than the face value of the actual money that you're getting. The only reason USSS got involved to begin with is because the casino security officer was (rightly) suspicious of some guy in the casino ripping bills off a pad and feeding them into a slot machine...
- nulltype 12y ago
  I didn't get the impression he put them into a slot machine, it seems unlikely it would accept 2 dollar bills. Also, I don't have a lot of casino security experience, but if a guy rips bills of a pad, it seems more likely he is joking around instead of counterfeiting. If you were counterfeiting currency you wouldn't want it on a pad, that's not very realistic at all.
  - tedunangst 12y ago
    Assuming no counterfeiter also comes up with the "it's so outrageous it must be legit" theory.
- sjy 12y ago
  I had to look up the Secret Service because I thought it was strange that the President's bodyguards would be interested in a suspected counterfeiter. Apparently their protection role was introduced after their primary mission, which is fighting financial crime. Weird.
  - noir_lord 12y ago
    Not really. Currency protection is one of the absolute most critical functions of a government, if people lose faith in your currency it causes a ridiculous number of problems. When the US was young it's presidents didn't require the level of protection they require now (in fact a few of those presidents would have been as likely to shoot an attacker as not). Eventually they realised that presidents do require protection but deciding who to use for that protection is quite a nuanced task, there are risks involved in having military protection or police protection (remember the political climate at the time was one of ongoing revolutions around the world and in Europe) so they needed an agency that existed, was extremely professional and likely wouldn't ruffle too many feathers. The US Secret Service fit the bill ideally.
notatoad 12y ago
Being the cofounder of Apple means you can get away with a lot of shit. I'm sure the secret service could have prosecuted him if they wanted to. They just chose not to.
- krylon 12y ago
  Well, owning 2$ bills and using them to pay for stuff or tipping people is legal. Nothing they could or wanted to do about that. Giving a fake ID to a secret service person might be illegal, but at that point they might have figured out he was pulling their leg. Even government officials sometimes have a sense of humor.

I don't understand how he didn't get into trouble for what he did. Why wasn't Secret Service able to prosecute him?

by therein 12y ago

I don't understand how he didn't get into trouble for what he did. Why wasn't Secret Service able to prosecute him?

shubb 12y ago

What did he do? I'm reading this and understanding that he bought real dollar bills as sheets, then had them perforated so they were easy to tear off...

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
nmrm 12y ago
He did nothing illegal, but (admittedly) acted a bit dodgy with the wrong (or right, if you want a good story) sorts of people.

bgc 12y ago

What he did is not illegal but perhaps not very smart as the uncut sheets of currency that are for sale by the BEP cost (significantly) more than the face value of the actual money that you're getting. The only reason USSS got involved to begin with is because the casino security officer was (rightly) suspicious of some guy in the casino ripping bills off a pad and feeding them into a slot machine...

nulltype 12y ago
I didn't get the impression he put them into a slot machine, it seems unlikely it would accept 2 dollar bills. Also, I don't have a lot of casino security experience, but if a guy rips bills of a pad, it seems more likely he is joking around instead of counterfeiting. If you were counterfeiting currency you wouldn't want it on a pad, that's not very realistic at all.
- tedunangst 12y ago
  Assuming no counterfeiter also comes up with the "it's so outrageous it must be legit" theory.
sjy 12y ago
I had to look up the Secret Service because I thought it was strange that the President's bodyguards would be interested in a suspected counterfeiter. Apparently their protection role was introduced after their primary mission, which is fighting financial crime. Weird.
- noir_lord 12y ago
  Not really. Currency protection is one of the absolute most critical functions of a government, if people lose faith in your currency it causes a ridiculous number of problems. When the US was young it's presidents didn't require the level of protection they require now (in fact a few of those presidents would have been as likely to shoot an attacker as not). Eventually they realised that presidents do require protection but deciding who to use for that protection is quite a nuanced task, there are risks involved in having military protection or police protection (remember the political climate at the time was one of ongoing revolutions around the world and in Europe) so they needed an agency that existed, was extremely professional and likely wouldn't ruffle too many feathers. The US Secret Service fit the bill ideally.

notatoad 12y ago

Being the cofounder of Apple means you can get away with a lot of shit. I'm sure the secret service could have prosecuted him if they wanted to. They just chose not to.

krylon 12y ago
Well, owning 2$ bills and using them to pay for stuff or tipping people is legal. Nothing they could or wanted to do about that. Giving a fake ID to a secret service person might be illegal, but at that point they might have figured out he was pulling their leg. Even government officials sometimes have a sense of humor.