A bit torn
On the one hand he had a Sony laptop, so probably getting what he deserves, but on the other he was using a very nice prosumer Canon camera.
I'm not sure what to think.
After faking one's own death to defraud a life insurance company, it's best to avoid being photographed alive and well, particularly when border agents may be reviewing those photos. That's a lesson learned too late by Igor Vorotinov, age 54, who was just arrested in the Republic of Moldova and extradited to the US State of …
@AC
I often find reading the story first most illuminating.
I find reading the story and understanding its contents even more illuminating, as it prevents one making crass and inaccurate comments later...
Quote:
Igor staged his death in Moldova by arranging for the corpse of an unknown person to be placed between two bushes at the entrance of the Cojusna village in Moldova and placing in the clothes of the corpse lgor's passport and other identification documents
Wondered why they didn't fingerprint or otherwise identify the body, then considered Bumfuck, Moldova and 'hear hoof beats, expect horses', not zebras... Very plausible for damn near any small town/village anywhere.
Disclaimer: happen to live in Bumfuck, Tennessee - so could be considered an authority or at least a witness.
".....Which happens to be an EOS, not a IOS - AFAIK Apple didn't buy Canon yet.... anyway, they didn't look to spend much on cameras despite the millions stolen <G>...."
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Actually, the INTERNAL APPLE rumour mill has the Apple Board and CEO Tim Cook looking at BUYING BOTH Canon (for their MASSIVE chip-making and optics patent portfolio) and TI (Texas Instruments) for their massive ARM CHIP production capacity and DSP (Digital Signal Processor) patent portfolio.
From my VERY GOOD SECRET SOURCES, Apple's offer for Canon MAY be on the order of nearly $60 Billion US and TI shareholders will be offered $25 Billion which are pretty hefty stock premiums....BUT.... I personally think because of BOTH companies' patent portfolios AND their internal chip-making capacities, this would make sense for Apple to do. Apple can afford to buy BOTH companies AND still have tons of cash left over.
I do know from some of the HIGHEST LEVEL SOURCES, that Apple is AGGRESSIVELY buying out entire patent portfolios for CPU, GPU and IMAGE SENSOR chip-making patents, quantum dot and chip-LED displays, 5G and newly-extended 6G wireless technologies, Sapphire-on-Polycarbonate screen coverings and A.I. systems software.
Don't be surprised to see Canon and/or Texas Instruments in Apple's hands by the of next year or by 2020!
Canon and TI are GREAT targets to go after!
@jmch - You would need to change the metadata of the photo to have consistent info with that fights the story. Not necessarily hard to do but something one needs to be alert to and make sure all the photos in the group are consistent, more of a pain than many realize. All it would take is a semi-bright spark to realize the metadata is inconsistent to start playing 20 questions with them. Looking at my photos, the camera model, timestamp, camera settings, and location (latitude & longitude) are recorded. Location may not be available depending on the settings used with the camera.
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"The son, said to have become aware of the fraud no later than April 2013, pleaded guilty to concealing and failing to report his family's fraud scheme and was sentenced to three years of probation. Along with his mother, he is required to return the fraudulently obtained funds."
I misread the end of the article as sentenced to three years of probation along with his mother. Still, she should be getting at least the same sentence as her husband, since she actually perpetrated the scam...
When faking your death you have to be paranoid and play it safe by prohibiting any technology from being near by. Probably good idea to let as few people in on it as possible, too.
If you go down this road you have to face the intrinsic limitations of this lifestyle (in so far as you don't want to get caught).
I'd stay well away from the internet.
Not a life for everyone :)
Why isn't his wife getting a prison sentence instead of probation? She received the money and claimed the death occurred in the first place.
Irina pleaded guilty, so likely got a plea bargain - lighter sentence for avoiding the trouble and expense of a trial, while still allowing the prosecutor to claim a conviction.
Igor hasn't been to trial yet. They will use the threat of a 20 year maximum sentence as a bludgeon with which to beat him into pleading guilty as well.
I'm intrigued by the way fraud offenses in the USA seem to be categorised by the transmission medium - mail fraud, wire fraud. If you defraud somebody by talking to them, is that 'speech fraud'? Can you avoid conviction by perpetrating your fraud over a novel medium?
IANAL, but as far as I know fraud in the UK is just fraud (or possibly 'obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception').
In the US, it is illegal to use the mail or phone in the commission of a crime. Mail fraud is automatically a feral level crime as it involves abusing the USPO. I believe wire fraud is also feral level. Basically these laws are really intended to nail crime syndicates on feral level charges but the ferals will use them on anybody. The mail and wire fraud occurred because the mail/wire were used to send the false information to the home office and send the money to the 'widow'. What crimes were committed in Moldava are not clear but the Ferals have something to nail them with.
The fake death story is funny and all, yes. But what's more interesting to me is this:
The feds apparently used the fact that border agents can search laptops without a warrant to fish for evidence.
While you are in the US, the police generally need a warrant to search for your things. At the border, border agents apparently can do whatever they want, even if it is completely unrelated to assessing whether you are entering the country legally or not.
Is that one crime "concealing and failing to report"? If so the second part seems redundant. Or is it two separate crimes? If "failing to report" someone else's crime is a crime then I need to urgently speak to the police about several thousand things. Including that car I saw speeding this morning.
@Slarti
Upvoted for the laugh ...
But, you have to distinguish crimes from mere offences.
If you are a witness to a crime, and fraud is a crime, then you must report it.
You do not have to report offences, you may, in which case you will get laughed at at the police station, but you can at least.
When the pair returned to the US from a trip to Moldova in November 2013, CBP agents seized their laptops. A warrant was issued shortly thereafter.
Should I comment. OK, I will bite.
While they most likely had a probable cause and a judge would have given them a search warrant anyway, they did what?