She's going to lose that house and car she bought... If you actually want to keep the money, you need to leave the country... Personally, I would have bought bitcoin with it, and moved to a non extradition country.
Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea. Assuming you make $80k a year, you're good for $2.8M in your career lifetime not accounting for inflation and career advancement. Bitcoin (recent trends notwithstanding) is also not a good idea (too volatile), although totally understand what you were getting at.
$1.2M makes $36k in interest over the course of a year at 3%, and you can probably do better than that. Given that you know for certain that they are going to come after you for the money, you put it all in GICs or something. When you have to pay it back (after the lawsuit), the judge is unlikely to make you pay back the interest given that it was their mistake, and you didn't do anything nefarious with the money.
"I was scared and didn't know what to do. I told my banker to invest it until I understood why I had it and who it belonged to."
You get $36k for free. Assuming you can drag the lawsuit out for a year...
Anyway, it'll be rich if / when the IRS looks at her taxes / audited her. It was always going to end badly no matter what.
Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea. Assuming you make $80k a year, you're good for $2.8M in your career lifetime not accounting for inflation and career advancement.
That may depend on which country you flee into, costs-of-living-wise.
You might be able to live cheap on $20-30/year in Thailand (and quite comfortably on $60-70k), but you had better find a good way to avoid detection there. While I am no expert in disappearing, I would guess you need about $500k to get a valid passport in a different name for a developed nation and another $100k to shake easy tracing.
Without a valid passport in another name you would have a huge struggle to last more than a year or two on the run.
In many parts of SE Asia you could live like a king on $25K/year. And I do mean like a king- large home, excellent food, adequate medical care (Vietnam and Thailand have world-class healthcare available).
Yes, there are tradeoffs, but if you do a little planning and choose carefully you can be set for life at a fraction of the cost of nearly any "Western" nation. And to be frank, there are tradeoffs living in the West too.
Actually, this is largely not true. There are specific instances where the loser is statutorily obligated to pay, and it's possible to argue in some other cases for costs and fees, but for the most part in the States, everyone pays their own way. It's actually referred to as the "American Rule" in other common-law jurisdictions (such as Ireland, the UK, etc.) where the loser is generally automatically saddled with the winner's costs.
Average != median, and as the next respondent notes, there are multiple sub-unity modifers there. Add in another for Louisiana.
She was a former dispatcher. A search finds an ostensibly relevant figure for 911 dispatchers in that state: average USD 48,155 / year. Apply modifiers and we're likely around 50% of the figure in the GP's argument.
There's also $ in hand vs. $ one _might_ make over the next, say, 40 years.
And of course, referring to Louisiana or the US as a stable nation is increasingly ina
the judge is unlikely to make you pay back the interest given that it was their mistake
Wrong. The judge will look at whatever she did after realizing the erroneous transfer. It's called fraud if you use the money to make money. That interest would be what the originator would have made with it too.
"Nuclear war would really set back cable."
- Ted Turner
People are so stupid... (Score:2)
Re:People are so stupid... (Score:4)
Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea. Assuming you make $80k a year, you're good for $2.8M in your career lifetime not accounting for inflation and career advancement. Bitcoin (recent trends notwithstanding) is also not a good idea (too volatile), although totally understand what you were getting at.
$1.2M makes $36k in interest over the course of a year at 3%, and you can probably do better than that. Given that you know for certain that they are going to come after you for the money, you put it all in GICs or something. When you have to pay it back (after the lawsuit), the judge is unlikely to make you pay back the interest given that it was their mistake, and you didn't do anything nefarious with the money.
"I was scared and didn't know what to do. I told my banker to invest it until I understood why I had it and who it belonged to."
You get $36k for free. Assuming you can drag the lawsuit out for a year...
Anyway, it'll be rich if / when the IRS looks at her taxes / audited her. It was always going to end badly no matter what.
Re:People are so stupid... (Score:4, Insightful)
Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea. Assuming you make $80k a year, you're good for $2.8M in your career lifetime not accounting for inflation and career advancement.
That may depend on which country you flee into, costs-of-living-wise.
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You might be able to live cheap on $20-30/year in Thailand (and quite comfortably on $60-70k), but you had better find a good way to avoid detection there. While I am no expert in disappearing, I would guess you need about $500k to get a valid passport in a different name for a developed nation and another $100k to shake easy tracing.
Without a valid passport in another name you would have a huge struggle to last more than a year or two on the run.
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In many parts of SE Asia you could live like a king on $25K/year. And I do mean like a king- large home, excellent food, adequate medical care (Vietnam and Thailand have world-class healthcare available).
Yes, there are tradeoffs, but if you do a little planning and choose carefully you can be set for life at a fraction of the cost of nearly any "Western" nation. And to be frank, there are tradeoffs living in the West too.
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and then you pay $72k to your lawyer.
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and then you pay $72k to your lawyer.
Bingo. Plus you have to pay for their lawyers. Loser pays in the US.
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Loser pays in the US.
Actually, this is largely not true. There are specific instances where the loser is statutorily obligated to pay, and it's possible to argue in some other cases for costs and fees, but for the most part in the States, everyone pays their own way. It's actually referred to as the "American Rule" in other common-law jurisdictions (such as Ireland, the UK, etc.) where the loser is generally automatically saddled with the winner's costs.
(IANAL. I could be wrong.)
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Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea. Assuming you make $80k a year,
Why would you assume that? The average is $67,000 / year.
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Leaving a stable Western nation over $1.2M is not a good idea.
I thought she was in the US?
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Wrong. The judge will look at whatever she did after realizing the erroneous transfer. It's called fraud if you use the money to make money. That interest would be what the originator would have made with it too.