Saturday, August 20, 2016

Say I steal 2 cents from every bank account in America. I am proven guilty, but everyone I stole from says they're fine with it. What happens?

You would be investigated and arrested by either the FBI or the US Secret Service, depending upon who caught wind of your antics first. The US Attorney would file multiple charges against you for the widescale theft that you have committed. And, unless you retained an exceptional attorney, you'd like many months (US federal prison sentences are calculated in months) in one or more federal prisons.

The mere fact that everybody ( the customers, the banks, etc.) are "OK" with your theft is meaningless. You would have had to construct a conspiracy to commit multiple criminal acts, hack into NUMEROUS systems, steal what would be a vast sum of money and then laundered that money to make hard to trace its origin, but easy for you to access. You could theoretically be charged on each act and that could easily add up to your serving decades in prison.

Let's be clear: When felonies are involved (and there would be numerous felonies involved here) the fact that the victim does not want to prosecute is not going to stop the prosecution from going ahead with their case. The victims can be compelled to testify as a "hostile witness" or even given immunity from prosecution as an incentive to do so. You will be prosecuted and, given the size of the case and the amounts stolen, you'd almost certainly be convicted.



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from Quora http://ift.tt/2b62zAi

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