Economic Crime

Sophie Lyons was a “thief from the cradle”, as one Chief of Police said; at the early age of six years she had already been trained by her stepmother to be a pickpocket and a shoplifter. A beautiful child with engaging manners, she was sent out every day into the stores and among the crowds of shoppers, and was soundly whipped if she came out of a shop with less than three pocketbooks. “I did not know it was wrong to steal; nobody ever taught me that,” Sophie Lyons writes.

“Bam!” The robber hit my eyes hard with his gun. I am still not sure if it was a real gun or a fake one: All I can say is that it was a very heavy metallic object. As soon as I saw the gun, the first thing I thought of was that my wife was pregnant. She was right next to me at that moment, unfortunately. The robber asked me to open our cash register and dump the cash into his bag. I don’t think he knew that we barely had $160 cash for changes (possibly even less than that). I hesitated for a second and he hit my head. This story is about the true event which happened in a video game ...

The Ponzi Housing Scheme is the financial crime of the 21st century. It makes Madoff look like an amateur because of scale. The crime was sophisticated in it's plan. This crime violated laws on the books. It violated laws that should be on the books. And it violated the trust that people have with the banking community, and this violation reaches to the highest bankers in the land and off our shores. This crime is complex, but it is not rocket science. The proof of culpability can be known.

Es ist der größte Steuerraub der Geschichte: Über Jahre ließen sich Banken und reiche Anleger mithilfe skrupelloser Anwälte Steuern vom Finanzamt erstatten, die sie nie gezahlt hatten. Mit anderen Worten: Sie stahlen unser aller Geld. Allein in Deutschland beläuft sich der Steuerschaden durch Cum-Ex und ähnliche Betrügereien auf circa 36 Milliarden Euro, in elf europäischen Staaten und den USA sind es insgesamt etwa 150 Milliarden Euro.

Der Wirecard-Skandal ist einmalig in der deutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte - ein einziger großer Fake. Wie konnte es zu diesem filmreifen Bankrott eines Dax-Konzerns kommen? Wer sind die Köpfe hinter dem Betrug? Wer muss dafür büßen? Und warum ist das weltumspannende kriminelle Netzwerk erst nach so langer Zeit aufgeflogen? Die Journalisten Bettina Weiguny und Georg Meck - beide federführend an der UFA-Verfilmung des Wirecard-Skandals beteiligt - entwerfen das Psychogramm eines Jahrhundertskandals.

We live in an age where scams are the new normal. Unsettling stories of today’s viral grifters have risen to fame and hit the front-page headlines, yet the curious conundrum remains: why do these scams happen? Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns and exclusive documents and interviews, Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social media ecosystem.