• Gork@sopuli.xyz
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    9 days ago

    Remove it from the original suitcase first. I’ve seen No Country for Old Men.

  • normanwall@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The answer is gambling and physical assets/collectables(gold/Pokemon cards)

    Make sure you start doing regular cash withdrawals to make it look like you take the money out to gamble and buy physical items

    Run the money through whatever casino or betting places you want, lose some, win some, withdraw and then deposit back into the account after buying gold or collectables off FB marketplace or Craigslist with cash

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          I mean, if you look at it like “I’m going into this casino to lose this money. The money I’m going to lose is the payment for hanging out in a room with lots of blinking lights, free well drinks and a guy in a vest, because that’s my kind of place”…sure. Maybe avoid writing those gambling losses off of your taxes.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        Looks like you could circumvent that by keeping the winnings small-ish, though I’m not sure if it’s per-day, per-month or per-year. Though the taxes are probably not that big of a deal, compared to how unlikely (and thus suspicious) it is to win so much money by casino gambling.

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          At that point, buy one tank of gas and/or one grocery trip with the “found” cash a month for the rest of your life and hope nobody notices you seem to be spending $100 a month more than you earn.

          • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            As mentioned earlier, do cash transactions with people on the market place or second-hand stores. Moving goods you want is easier if you stay away from shiny new stuff and big stores

          • lad@programming.dev
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            8 days ago

            This, I think, is the most reasonable way. Also, I don’t think they do keep track to the cent, at least not yet

  • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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    9 days ago

    Interesting thought experiment, actually.

    That’s for sure the kind of thing that you don’t want generally known where you got the money from, you don’t want the original owners knocking at your door.

    In my parts, cash payment is pretty well-accepted for day-to-day stuff, but bigger stuff is likely going to raise suspicions, and you probably won’t want to involve banks at all so depending on your pre-bush money finances, paying doctors out of pocket is not going to be (easily) possible. So I could use the bush money for shopping (groceries, clothes etc.), get a psychotherapist. Maybe buy illicit drugs, see if that does anything for my issues.

    TBH it wouldn’t even improve my general living situation much unless I find a reasonably non-suspicious way to get a relatively large amount of money into a banking account. IDK, start a sham business?

    • plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      Suddenly not having weekly grocery purchases on your debit/credit after decades of doing so will raise some red flags though.

      People forget about the patterns they’ve made.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        I already pay for most things in cash where possible. But you’re right, not doing regular cash withdrawals might raise suspicions. Looks like for the most part, I’d just use the money for spending more money on groceries, clothes etc.; waste of time TBH, might as well start handing it all out to homeless and charities that take cash donations if I can’t find a way to make a sham business work without putting me in prison.

        • plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works
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          9 days ago

          If you get audited or something not much you can do since they can use investigators and watch you, at least in Canada iirc.

          But buy your regular groceries, drop it off at the food bank, and buy your meals out, buy better versions of what you normally would. But don’t suddenly shop at Louis Vuitton.

          Make some deposits on your mortgage and say it’s XYZ gift from your aunt.

          • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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            9 days ago

            But buy your regular groceries, drop it off at the food bank

            Tbh, if you can just drop off cash donations at your local food bank without giving your identity that’d help more. They usually can get deals to buy more food per dollar than individuals can

            • topherclay@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              The only reason a food bank was included here was as a way to not waste the decoy groceries that you are purchasing as a way to maintain your pattern so the tax man doesn’t notice.

            • plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works
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              9 days ago

              Some food banks can only buy from certain venders, so they need specific grocery items all the time. Especially if they deal with ethnic communities.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      start a sham business

      Yeah, register as a tarot reader, fortune teller, small business consultant, antiques dealer, vintage collector, wedding singer…

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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        9 days ago

        These sound pretty good. Anything where getting paid in cash and not having receipts would be the norm. I could also get into busking, there’s no way the tax office is even going to track how much time I actually spend doing it. Which might explain quite a few of the buskers I’m seeing in my town …

  • untorquer@quokk.au
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    9 days ago

    Put your regular income into savings to save for a mortgage, debt paydown, and mutual aid and other big purchases. You now have 750k for daily expenses and fun money for the next half of your life.

  • Soulcreator@programming.dev
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    9 days ago

    First thing I’d do is quickly acquire $750k of counterfeit bills from the dark web and then place the bag with the counterfeit bills back where I found it. Hopefully before anyone notices it’s gone. I’ve seen too many movies to know how this ends.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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      9 days ago

      What does it say about me that I’m not interested in any of the stuff that a lot of money could buy on the black market?

      • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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        9 days ago

        That’s because the truely smart crooks keep it a secret.

        Imagine a pool filled with DS9 dvds. That’s what they’re doing.

      • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        With that much money, just get a contact and pay a premium for normal stuff, no questions asked. “128 Gb DDR5. Cash drop. No questions.”

      • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        Oh really? How many kidneys do you have?

        Now, and this is the good part, think of how many you COULD have.

        With 750k I’m not sure but it’s probably at least 3 more!

  • prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    $750,000 is a lot of money. I have a job that pays me well, and maintaining my legal, safe lifestyle is worth more to me than getting away with more money.

    I would search for anything that helps identify the owner, and failing that, confirm my idea with a lawyer. My understanding is that in my state, I have to give the money to the police for 60 days. If the owner fails to claim it, it legally becomes mine, and I have to pay income taxes on it. That’ll make a mess of my tax filings for the year (suddenly I don’t qualify for Roth IRA, for example) but I don’t place myself in any legal danger.

    It’s a boring answer, but I’d much rather have a boring $440,000 than an exciting $750,000 and a constant threat looming over me.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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      9 days ago

      Most police would just seize the money saying they suspect it was used in a crime. Why would they let some rando have it if it could buy the office a new MRAP?

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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          8 days ago

          The problem is that the charges are against the property itself, and it’s a civil not a criminal charge. So the police only have to meet a minimal standard that there is probable cause. This could be as simple as claiming the only reason someone wouldn’t be actively seeking that large amount of money through legal means would be that the money was involved with or acquired through illegal means.

          If the police did seize the money, it would at least be tied up in court for years with extended legal expenses. Personally I would rather take my chances on laundering the money or an extended period of time.

    • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      If you’re American, that’d be ≤$210 000 for the US government, including the military, ICE, and the US prison-industrial complex.

        • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Who’s casting stones? I’m giving my opinion to wt:thons reply to a hypothetical situation.

          Thon says that thon is doing alright, so this $750 000 is a choice that might take a relatively short time to figure out: for some a few days, for others, a little longer, and for some a few minutes.

          IMO there are at least 2 moral questions here.

          Is this a case of some decent person somehow losing $750 000?

          Should one report it, and while it might go to a decent person, it also might be returned to a bank or some similar or worse, and if unclaimed, ≤$210 000 goes to a government presided by Trump; or does one not report it maybe spend $37 500 of cash every year for the next 20 years?

  • DeadPixel@lemmy.zip
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    9 days ago

    If this was on the side of a snowy road by a barb wire fence, I’d just put it right back & carry on driving away from Fargo…

    • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Take it and hold it for a few months, and if you find out what happened by the news, then give it to Scotty.

  • kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Depends who we’re afraid of here. Are we afraid of whoever lost the suitcase full of money, or the government, or both?

    I’d assume whoever ditched a suitcase of money is a criminal, and unlikely to report it as lost with the serial numbers of the banknotes.

    In that case I’d just use it for some day-to-day stuff, small luxuries, and whatever crap I want on Facebook marketplace that doesn’t need to be registered.

    If I was convinced these banknotes came from a bank robbery or something of the sort, I think I’d only use it at somewhat sketchy looking flea markets / swap meets, and on holiday in foreign countries. But in that case it would be very hard to ever use all of it without trying to get a suspicious amount of cash through TSA and past customs.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Depends who we’re afraid of here. Are we afraid of whoever lost the suitcase full of money, or the government, or both?

      I don’t think suitcases full of money come with instructions on who you’ve offended by taking them. Figuring this out is the point of the thought experiment.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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      9 days ago

      I belong to one of the poorest groups in my country and it’s immediately obvious why it would be difficult. Banks are definitely going to get suspicious if you suddenly turn up with huge amounts of money of unclear origin and might notify the tax office, at which point you’re toast if you didn’t think of a good way to launder the money. If you officially declare that you found a suitcase of money, it’s unclear whether you’re allowed to keep it, and there’s a chance that the ones who put/lost the suitcase in the bush learn of it (e.g. if the source is government corruption).

      Probably less difficult to hide if you already have a half-decent income where you can theoretically save quite a bit of money by living really frugally.

  • python@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    My husband’s into the One Piece TCG. There’s some pretty significant money exchanging hands in that scene, so it should be fairly easy to launder that kind of money by buying cards in cash and selling them on Cardmarket (thus paying taxes on them). Just last week he was part of a deal where a card was sold for 26k in cash and nobody was phased by it haha

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I’m not knowledgeable enough to know exactly how this could work, but I think the first step would be to register a business or five in Nevis. Maybe a “consulting business”.

    I’m sure there’s a way to do it, rich people launder money all the time.