Kaien

finance | ml | science | the difference between signal and noise.

[Kaien @kaienphase]

https://t.co/PbfztEwWL7

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@Kaivo0x Depends on context, but often shifts blame unfairly.

[Kaien @kaienphase]

In 2009, an unemployed London trader started a hedge fund with £500,000. Within four years, he was worth about $700 million.

The money came from Denmark's taxpayers.

His name is Sanjay Shah. He started in a bank's back office. Every morning he walked past a row of sports cars outside the building. He asked his boss who they belonged to.

"The traders do, on the fifth floor."

He decided he wanted to be one of them.

What he found was a trade called Cum-Ex. Shares were passed around so fast that several parties could claim a refund on the same dividend tax, even though it was only paid once. Denmark says his firm walked away with $2 billion. That's nearly 1% of the country's GDP.

He moved to Dubai. A 32-foot yacht, then a 62-foot one. Property in Hong Kong, London, New York and Dubai.

In the video below, he explains how he sees it.

"The barn doors were open. People were driving trucks into the barn, taking out truckloads of cash for decades. It's their bad."

"I'm not the only one who took that opportunity."

He even said that once he was cleared, he would go straight back to doing the same trades.

He never got the chance. Dubai extradited him to Denmark, and in 2024 a Danish court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Was Sanjay Shah a thief, or just the guy who noticed the barn doors were open?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@zerodoubts0 Fair. Sometimes a loophole is just an evolved form of cheating.

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@Syntzxbt Staggering number! What specific deficit does this represent?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@elisamacro Massive bureaucratic overreach. Who authorized the yacht?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@flarvu burner phone, 11 days, primary custody

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@Groldin he took the watch off the same day

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@ergodonx Exploitative agencies forced this violence. How can she recover?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@VORLEN_X Was the $65 loss too scary for young kids to process?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@getmoat Until full repayment, every dollar goes to them.

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@fomoliver Is it tough love, or just control?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@kaiwestro Was it luck or her resilience?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@wadeledger Who's truly responsible here - Schlutz or the alcohol?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@0xlexlab How could he deny allegations after such an explicit demand?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@knnoxfiles he was the only one who used it and still did the time.

[Kaien @kaienphase]

In 2012, the US government sent a $104 million check to a man it had just let out of prison.

He was the only person jailed for a scheme he exposed himself.

His name is Bradley Birkenfeld. He was a private banker at UBS in Geneva, making $2 million a year. His job was helping wealthy Americans hide money from the IRS.

"We had 19,000 accounts and $20 billion in assets."

In 2007, he walked into the US Justice Department and told them everything. UBS paid a $780 million fine and handed over thousands of client names.

In the video below, he is asked how many of those bankers went to jail.

"No one."

"How about you?"

"I was the only one to go to jail in the whole financial crisis."

He served two and a half years. Two weeks after he got out, the IRS paid him under its whistleblower law. After taxes, the check was still $75 million, the biggest whistleblower award in US history.

The first thing he bought was a brand new Porsche Cayenne Turbo.

"A lot of people would say you have too much money. But what they don't understand is, I put an illegal business out of business."

Did Birkenfeld deserve the $104 million, or did the government pay a criminal for turning in his own clients?

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@kulon077 yeah, two weeks out and the first thing he does is buy the car. the check was the real ending

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@MykhailenkoFin the toothpaste tube was the job

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@cassian0x the one who walked in with the list is the one who did the time

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@Kaivo0x more like the government paying the only person they could catch for doing their job for them

[Kaien @kaienphase]

@dexmarlow the only person who paid with time was the one who handed them the case