Guilty of stealing error coins.

[Tanman-migration]

Not sure if this was posted yet...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/us-mint-officer-admits-taking-2-4m-worth-021243998.html

 

 

[bsshog40]

Steals $2.4 million of Gov't property and gets out on a $50,000 bond. It would also be curious as to find out what Ebay seller were selling these.

[Tanman-migration]

After posting this, I was reading some of the comments and someone had a good point. $2.4 million in $1 coins is freakin' heavy. How did no one notice the UHaul truck and fork lift?

 

Tanman

[bsshog40]

So he stole $2.4 million, the prez dollars weigh 8.1 grams ea which I think calculates out to 42,857 lbs. And were these just the 2007 smooth edge Washingtons? Couldn't have done it alone.

[RWB]

...a "retail value" of $2.4 million - not face value.

[bsshog40]

...a "retail value" of $2.4 million - not face value.

I wonder how they determine retail value unless they have records of what he sold them for.

[RWB]

Says they were sold to a California dealer....In any event, an estimate of retail value is all that was needed.

[x2rider]

It makes you wonder how many of the missing edge lettered $1 out there are stolen goods

[shirohniichan]

It makes you wonder how many of the missing edge lettered $1 out there are stolen goods

 

Yea, verily.

 

Somehow "inside job" errors don't appeal much to me.

[johnny9434]

inside job or not, i dont want to know about it in any way shape or form

[Chris1976]

According to the article in the weekly edition of Coin World (September 26, 2011 vol. 52 issue 2685), Gray (officer being charged) had admited to taking coins from the coining room prior to the coins being transfered to the room where the edge lettering would be put onto the coin. He would take a few and put them in a small bag to take home to sell to the california dealer (name not being announced yet) for $20 each in the begining and then later selling them to the same california dealer for $70 to $75 each. The article also states that many of the missing edge lettering coins had made it to the public under "normal" circumstances, many in fact were introduced by "abnormal" means.

 

Gray is being charged with the theft of the coins which carries up to 10 years in prison and upto $250,000 in fines plus charges of tax evasion which carries a sentence up to 5 years in prison and up to another $250,000 in fines. Currently they are taking possession of anything that could of been bought as a result of the sales of these stolen coins such as $2.3 million in cash, two row homes, motor vehicles, a boat and a boat motor.

[shirohniichan]

I bet Snowden would have been shocked to learn that one day inside jobs at the Mint could one day be profitable enough to buy homes, boats, and "motor vehicles".

[e1cnr]

so what about the coin dealer?

 

Are they going to go after them? Would it be kinda suspicious getting piles of no edge lettering from someone at the minting town?

[Chris1976]

Haven't heard anything about it yet, but I would guess that since they know what dealer it was, that the dealer will be charged with recieving stolen goods at a minimum.

 

-Chris#2

[noow]

If the dealer didn't know about the coins being stolen, he/she won't be charged.

[Chris1976]

With the amount of "error" coins this dealer bought from just one single guy, it would be virtually impossible for the dealer to convince anyone that he didnt have knowledge of the coins possibly being stolen. Too many times I have seen people get charged with either recieving or trafficing of stolen goods even if they honestly did not know the items had been stolen. Unfortunately for the dealer in this case, to many of the "error" coins had passed through his hands. You would think after a few shipments of the coins that the dealer would of thought "how is this guy finding so many of this particular error?". But he continued to purchase from this seller for a time period of several years. Same type of coin, same error.