Suppose, for example, I find a million bucks in cash buried somewhere. If I just keep the money, and not tell anybody, am I breaking any law?
I suppose it counts as income, so at least it’s tax fraud. Are there any further laws broken though?
How about if I declare it to the IRS? Will they inform the police to investigate?
Where exactly did you find this money? If it’s from someone else’s private property, you might be looking at theft, trespassing, plus the civil tort of conversion. If it’s buried on the beach or something, then I think you’re free except for the tax issues. I really don’t have any authority to cite for this, but it seems like it would be treated as abandoned and found property, and you would be the rightful owner just as if you had salvaged a shipwreck or took an item from a dumpster.
Hmmm… “breaking the law” is a rather broad term. I suspect you would have to report it as some form of income, but I’ll leave that to a tax expert to comment on.
“Found it somewhere” raises yet another question. If you found it buried on your own property, it’s yours. If you found it buried on someone else’s property, the laws of the jurisdiction would specify what if any crime you might have committed in digging it up and retaining it as your own. It would, however, IMO, constitute the tort of “conversion” – which is the civil law equivalent of “theft” in the same way as “unlawful death” is the civil law equivalent of “manslaughter.” In the same manner as money found buried on your own property, to which you hold title, becomes yours by virtue of being a part of your property, said money would be a part of the other person’s property. And that person could be the public: state or federal land, unless there’s some provision regarding that. And there are undoubtedly numerous legal caveats regarding any portion of the above statements, which are merely my understanding of the law. Let me also note the legal concept of Treasure trove, which can get remarkably arcane.
But if they’re marked bills, from a robbery, kidnapping or sting operation, trying to spend them could get you in a world of hurt, even if the circumstances give you the legal ownership, & you are innocent.
Say I found a million dollars. If a poor person lost it, I’d give it back.
I have had bad luck all my life. If I found a million dollars it is a set up and I am framed to take the fall. I would call the police and tell them I was miles from there when I found it.
You most likely would run into money laundering statutes if you ever tried spending the money.
How does a poor person lose a million dollars?
She wasn’t poor before she lost the million…
Heck, I would only have to lose 57 cents to be poor. Money on hand- bills payable-one cent=despair. Money on hand - bills payable + one cent =Joy. Happiness is only a penny away.
Upon what are you basing this assertion? The federal money laundering statutes don’t seem to apply to the circumstance of spending money one finds “buried somewhere.”
A guy in Australia went to jail for finding a bag of money and not informing the authorities. I do not have a cite. I remember that the reason he got found out was he worked as a bank teller and brought the bag to work. Another teller noticed money falling out of the bag. He did not steal the money from his bank. The bag of money was abandoned elsewhere. Noone ever claimed the bag.
Found the cite.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cash-in-the-bag-man-comes-clean/2005/10/11/1128796507054.html
It’s complicated, even if you found money on your own land. If you find it on your own land, it probably falls in the murky area of treasure trove, which nowadays seems to award title to the landowner. So if you were a worker and discovered money on someone’s land while working, you don’t have a claim to it and can arguably be prosecuted.
IANAL, but if you find a million dollars buried somewhere or lying in the street, you’d probably be setting yourself up for prosecution if you don’t turn it in. I’m guessing that “Finders keepers, losers weepers” is not a valid precedent when, for example, a bag falls off a Brinks truck.
Of course, it’s prudent to think of the kinds of people likely to have duffel bags full of unmarked large bills to begin with. If you think breaking the law is a big deal, wait until the rightful wrongful owner is breaking your face.
So what happens if you dig up, on your own property, money that’s been unlawfully obtained? And declare it. Is there a difference between recently buried and long-ago buried? What if the courts initially don’t catch that the money’s been unlawfully obtained?
So treis, does your day-long silence in response to my request that you back up your assertion qualify as an admission that you are unable to do so?
I suspect that what treis was referring to is the problem of any transaction involving more then $10,000. I agree that it’s hardly cut & dried, but my first thought on reading the OP was that it would be difficult to buy any big ticket items without raising red flags in the Great Bureaucratic Sea.
The difference between recently buried and long-ago buried is that in the former case, the lawful owners can petition the courts to make you give it back. If the lawful owner was a prospector who died 150 years ago, then you don’t have this potential complication.
I recently saw a movie called "A Simple Plan", starring Billy Bob Thornton, that has a plot involving three people who come upon a large amount of cash and the effect it has on them. Outstanding flick. I highly recommend it.
The film Charley Varick with Walter Matthau was based on just this scenario. A trio of small time crooks robbed a small bank in a small town wanting to just pick up an easy 10 grand or so. The bank turned out to be a holding place for a mob and they got over $300 thousand. The rest of the film deals with Matthau’s attempts to evade retribution.