Which is worse. A $3 billion fraud or taking $100 and giving it back the next day?
Taylor Bean & Whitaker were one of the largest privately held mortgage lenders in the US.
Paul Allen was their CEO and involved in all the key areas of the business. Unfortunately for a lot of people Mr Allen also became involved in the fraud which led to the Taylor Bean business being closed down with 2,000 people losing their jobs.
The fraud also contributed to the collapse of Colonial Bank in the States after they purchased hundreds of millions of dollars of Taylor Bean mortgages.
Two major European banks also suffered as BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank lost nearly $2 billion as a result of buying various corporate paper from Taylor Bean which was not suitably backed up by collateral.
A $3 billion fraud with thousands of people losing their jobs. Clearly a serious crime.
The end result was that Mr Allen was jailed for just over 3 years.
Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum in terms of crime against financial institutions and the financial amount involved, a teller at Capital One bank in the States was approached by Roy Brown who put a hand under his jacket, claimed it was a gun and demanded money.
The teller handed Mr Brown 3 piles of money but he only took one $100 bill.
Mr Brown then had a change of heart and the next day handed himself into police and told them that his mother didn’t raise him that way.
He was homeless and told police that he needed the $100 to attend a detox centre.
Despite Mr Brown’s dramatic change of heart he was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison for the robbery.
So in summary, $3 billion and 3 years vs. $100 and 15 years…
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