How ordinary Americans cashed in on 9/11

Financial scandals continue in the USA

Once again, another financial scandal is gathering pace in the USA. This time, the scandal was not arranged by top managers of large corporations, but by the common American people.

The police determined that some 15 million dollars had been stolen from bank machines in New York after the terrorist attack on September 11th. Computer systems of the banks were not operating very well due to malfunctions after the attack on the WTC, which resulted in the embezzlement of the mentioned sum of money.

As was informed, the criminals (city officials, basically) managed to develop a system that helped them steal over $15 million from the accounts of the municipal credit union in different banks. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau claimed that police had already arrested 55 people, and they were seeking 46 more. The police also have information that there were up to 4000 people participating in the affair: the detained people were withdrawing large sums from accounts, and the rest were dealing with “little money,” up to $500.

One may not say that the swindlers were taking some important positions. The list includes a nurse, for example, who stole loans in the sum of over $18 thousand; a clerk, who spent his stolen money on wine and barbecues; and a security guard, who became eleven million dollars richer.

The conclusion to this trivial story is very simple: looters have always been and they will always be. While some steal food or VCRs from ruined buildings, others steal money from ATMs.

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov