One amusing byproduct of the financial meltdown will be endless stories of the pathetic and tasteless ways in which various crooks spent their ill-begotten gains. You may have already heard of Bernie Madoff’s attempt to mail his family a million dollars in jewels yesterday. Here’s another that happened a little while ago: a financial rep with Ameriprise who blew 200K on Russian women.
One complaint against Shane A. Selewach, formerly in the Boston office of Ameriprise, alleged that he stole more than $200,000, mostly from older clients, and used that money for personal expenses.
Those expenses included several charges for a dating service touting itself as “the fastest way to meet thousands of Russian ladies.” It also included several charges at a florist in Moscow as well as thousands of dollars in restaurant and hotel tabs in Kiev, Ukraine and Moscow, as well as other locations in Russia and Ukraine.
Expect a lot more stories like this one over the next year.
Comrade Glocksman
Wasn’t it Claire Wolfe who said that America is at that awkward stage where it’s too late to work within the system yet too early to start shooting the bastards?
Tarring and Feathering, though…..
Michael D.
Dude! Your first post was supposed to be about why you are a Republican. Don’t you know anything?
bago
He was bribed, yo!
kommrade reproductive vigor
At least E. Spritzer bought American.
We kan haz guillotines naow?
4tehlulz
Well, this explans why the Russian economy is doing so poorly lately. Its key prostitution industry has suffered a great loss.
TR
I heard Larry Kudlow was putting all his money into cocaine, and then putting all the cocaine into himself.
4tehlulz
I’m Lawrence Kudlow. I DO COCAINE!
The Grand Panjandrum
Somebody will cap Madoff’s ass before he goes to trial.
The two year old financial advisor story shouldn’t surprise anyone. These sorts of things happen every year. We are just more acutely aware of these shenanigans now that the establishment media has decided to report the problems in the various economic and financial markets. Nothing like a skyscraper engulfed in flames and on the verge of collapse to get everyones attention.
djork
"foreign affairs"
djork
"foreign affairs" heh
John S.
I’m waiting for Madoff to get really creative, like fashioning undergarments out of bearer bonds or baking gemstones into cookies.
Fwiffo
Didn’t I hear a story that Madoff had offed himself? Was it somebody connected to him?
Also, my Dad is a rep with Ameriprise… Should I click through to the article?
Reverend Dennis
It would have been kind of cool if the media had become curious about how the markets could suddenly generate shitloads of money with no real change in the underlying economy before the whole house of cards came down. Granted, we may have had to forgo some of the Anna Nicole Smith coverage, or some of the endless speculation about Chandra Levy though.
The Other Steve
Look, if you want to send me money. please just make it cash.
It’s more work trying to liquify jewels. I have to find a pawn broker and all that.
gypsy howell
How long before Madoff pulls a Ken Lay and "drops dead" and is "suddenly cremated" so his wifey gets to keep all the loot?
Laura W
@Reverend Dennis: That’s a slap in the face to Natalie Holloway.
Reverend Dennis
@Laura W:
LOL! I had a difficult time, at this time of the morning on the three-hours-earlier Left Coast, dredging up some of the stories that "the news" gave us as a substitute for actual reporting.
DougJ
I’m going to post about why Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book but I have to finish the book first.
demimondian
@DougJ: Atlas Shrugged is an easy book: Taggart is brilliant, Taggart gets fucked, Taggart becomes Galt gropie…err, I mean, groupie. Economy gets fucked; Taggart runs away to enjoy her gains.
Think Ken Lay + Bernie Maoff, but now with looser morals.
Faux News
Ok so we have established that you are a masochist.
r€nato
I blame the CRA, Barney Fag, Chris Dodd, Carter, and Clinton.
Also.
The Other Steve
Perhaps the book can explain our current economic problems?
Conservatively Liberal
Fix’t.
Laura W
@Reverend Dennis: Well, it was a double slap to poor Natalee, RIP, since I spelled her name wrong.
Speaking of "actual reporting", this morning Kyra Phillips of CNN stated that Jett Travolta’s body was being flown back to FL for burial. (I am nearly certain she said "body" and not "remains".) Was it not last night, on her very own network, that King covered this story for the umpteenth time, with a credible source talking at length about the cremation of said body? I’ll bet even Mika got that factoid straight this morning. I don’t know why I continue to self-harm with cable teevee.
I am a cable cutter.
ETA: Obligatory Jon Benet Ramsey insert.
Fulcanelli
@Comrade Glocksman:
Win!
Although I would argue that it’s not too early somewhere. Rendition, anyone? 4:20? A casino (no clocks)?
TenguPhule
Can we pass a law that says anyone who is found to have stolen at least $20 million gets their head cut off and mounted on a pole in the NYSE?
It seems the only way to get the message across.
Gus
Too French.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Freedom is messy.
Glocksman
@Gus:
Guillotines may be too French, but they do inspire a certain amount of residual fear among the ‘let them eat cake’ classes.
Then again, so do Soviet Moisin-Nagant, SKS, and AK rifles, along with Tokarev and Nagant pistols.
I don’t own a guillotine, but I do own several fine revolutionary firearms courtesy of our fraternal comrades in Yugoslavia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia.
Power to the People! :)
Brian J
Completely unrelated, but my one of my English teachers in high school required the honors students she had to complete a seperate project that was worth a decent chunk of our grade. For me, someone who enjoys regular book learning, it wasn’t so great, but for some, it was a chance to do some cool stuff. A few years before I had her, one of the students, whose father was a contractor, built a real guillotine, as they used in Les Miserables. I always found that really amusing.
Jim
I expect this machine to show up any day now in the news. It would be especially special if the story’s protagonists included a major financier or current White House occupant.
DougJ
Smart. Strong.