BWAHAHAHA!! Three more meatpickles, greed & stupidity, OTB fraud--Book 'em, Danno

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Heh. Not a rant but a gloat. Dumbasses In Chains.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0211130370nov13,0,2925790.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Pick Three: Charges filed in horse bet

By Stevenson Swanson and Neil Milbert, Tribune staff reporters.
Neil Milbert contributed to this report from Chicago
Published November 13, 2002

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Three former fraternity brothers were charged Tuesday in what officials described as one of the largest pari-mutuel wagering frauds ever attempted, a $3 million payoff involving the Oct. 26 Breeders’ Cup at Arlington Park.

The three–Derrick Davis of Baltimore; Christopher Harn of Newark, Del.; and Glen DaSilva of New York–appeared before a federal magistrate after surrendering to the FBI. Each faces a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, punishable by up to five years in prison, though prosecutors said more charges could be forthcoming.

It was an inside-job conspiracy–Davis and DaSilva opened the accounts and placed the bets, and Harn was their man on the inside at Autotote, where he worked as a computer programmer. After the bets were placed the day of the race, Harn went in to work–and on a day when he wasn’t scheduled to work, so everybody saw him and wondered, “Hey, what’s Harn doing here on a Saturday?”–and he accessed the Autotote system. The Tribune has a nifty chart in the print edition that notes, “Officials suspect the three tapped into the betting computers after the first four races and changed the bets to match the winning results.” Gee, what a cool idea. Let’s just change the computer. Nobody will ever notice. Except that this is a Three Stooges skit, so…

Suspicions that something was wrong with the Breeders’ Cup bets arose when it was discovered that there were six winning Pick Six tickets, each worth about $428,000, and Davis held all of them. He also held 108 consolation tickets worth about $4,600 apiece.

Then there was the unusual way in which Davis had made his bets. Using a touch-tone telephone system run by an off-track betting facility in upstate New York, Davis had placed single bets on the winners of the first four races of the Pick Six, then bet on every horse in the last two races.

Those two highly unusual circumstances led to an investigation by the company that handled the bets, racing officials and later, federal prosecutors.

Um, yeah. As soon as the race is over, the Suits realize, “Hey, what are the odds that one person could be holding, not two or three, but 114 winning tickets?”

Cracking the conspiracy involved the FBI, the New York State Police, and the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, but Comey said the case had posed no great challenges. “It was garden-variety fraud,” Comey said. “There was nothing really fancy here.”

No kidding. :rolleyes: My grandma could’ve cracked this one. With her hair still in rollers, too. And before she’d had her coffee.

DaSilva, who tested positive for cocaine and marijuana before his hearing, also will be tested three times a week for drugs, officials said.

Kids–don’t do drugs. Drugs make you stupid.

[Sublight]

Now this would make an effective anti-drug ad.

[Larry_Mudd]

:smack:

“I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those darn… uh, if it weren’t for… uh… um… if I wasn’t a drooling moron.”

[wring]

Yea, I know, I’m continually amazed at the stories I hear “and you thought this was a good idea… why?” One of my personal favorites was the one who set fire to the business to hide the fact that she’d forged some checks off their account (yea, burn the books, the bank will never keep a copy, and they’d like never suspect large sequential checks… )

[wring]

and before some one takes offense:

1. Yes, I have a hellava lot of sympathy for the business owner who suffered.

2. By laughing at the stupidity of the crime, I do not in any way, suggest that we should minimize the sense of loss for the victim, nor should we minimize the consequences for the criminal.

(and, yes, of course I know that fires are dangerous and can be life threatening to people etc. I knew the end results of this whole thing, no one was physically hurt, the business owner had insurance and the place wasn’t a total loss and the criminal involved served a hell of a lot of time)