So you're 23, living in the big city after graduating college. You've got some extra time on your hands -- why not make a movie with your friends? You know some pretty talented people. You could get it together.
And it could be this REALLY awesome movie about .... um... let's see... a Harvard guy with a hot girlfriend, tons of money, and a great job who goes to lots of fabulous parties and throws down wads of cash at all the best clubs. Yeah, yeah. Except then there's a scandal - and ...like .. um.. millions of dollars disappear from a big client's Swiss bank account and then this guy is held accountable for it. Yeah! That's freaking awesome! And, as the guy's on the run from the law trying to clear his name, he does a lot of drugs and has sex with some strippers. And it totally sucks that his best friend gets killed by some bad dudes who really meant to get the main guy. But what exciting stuff.
So you plunk down your $20K and make the movie, as Eugene Plotkin did in the summer of 2003.
You can see the trailer here. Looks good, right?
But -- note to self: Might not be such a good idea to then act out an insider trading scheme of your own with eerily similar plot points.
For, you see, Plotkin -- a Harvard honors grad (oh, those crazy Crimson-ites) now employed at Goldman Sachs -- was arrested Tuesday as an alleged part of a scam raking in a reported $6.7 million.
The basic idea:
But -- more importantly -- how did they get busted? A retired Croation seamstress invested $130,000 in Rebook and - voila! - two days later, it was worth $2 million!! Imagine that.
Needless to say, it raised some flags.
Once looking into it, investigators found that her newphew controlled the account. He used to work at Goldman, too, along with Plotkin.
But how did they get the information in the first place? For one, they had a forklift operator at the Business Week printing plant in on the plan. That guy would snag them a pre-pub copy of the mag, allowing them early access to the vital tips in the "Inside Wall Street" column.
And strippers played an integral role in the scheme. (And we all know any scheme worth it's salt has got to have a few strippers thrown in.) The girls used their powers of seduction to get financial information out of their banker and allowed trading to be out of their accounts. For a cut, of course.
When interviewed, the director of the movie said it was "sort of ironic" that there's a scene of the FBI agents kicking down the door in the movie that parallels the one in real life.
Ironic?
I think not.
The greedy Harvard brat got what he deserved, right?
For more info, check out: http://www.nypost.com/business/66846.htm and http://www.nypost.com/business/62332.htm
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Day 29
Bought one lottery ticket.
Lost.
Total: $43.
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