Alleged Con Man Blows Cash On Thousand Dollar Evony Addiction

[Karloff]

Alleged Con Man Blows Cash On Thousand Dollar Evony Addiction

David "Kawika" Buchanan of Hawaii's charged with wire fraud, and could get 20 years in prison.

David "Kawika" Buchanan of Molokai, Hawaii, who allegedly passed himself off as a financial advisor, is charged with wire fraud. In one instance he allegedly conned a woman into handing over $40,000, plus an additional $5,000 for taxes, claiming he could turn that money into $300,000, representing a 650% rate of return on her investment. According to the charges [http://mauinow.com/2014/04/24/molokai-man-charged-with-alleged-investment-fraud/] against him, Buchanan used the money for "personal travel, an online strategy video game called Evony, Western Union wire transfers to an internet girlfriend in the Philippines, online shopping, credit card payments and miscellaneous personal expenses of the defendant and the defendant's brother."

So how much was spent on online strategy title Evony, best known for its cleavage-heavy advertising? Well into the thousands of dollars, according to the FBI agent who investigated Buchanan. Agent Tom Simon describes Buchanan as a shut-in, and says cash was spent on Evony directly and via Facebook.

"As a middle-aged, admittedly square, FBI Special Agent who doesn't play video games, I was understandably perplexed when, during the 'follow the money' analysis, I kept seeing payments being made to something I'd never heard of called Evony," says Simon. "I was ... puzzled how anyone could possibly spend thousands of dollars on a video game. I wasn't being judgmental about the societal value of gaming. I was just dumbfounded that any video game could possibly cost that much."

Evony's dropped the case [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99513-Evony-Still-Shady-After-All-These-Years] after only two days in court.

Buchanan is scheduled to appear in court on May 8th. Should he be found guilty, the statutory maximum is a 20 year sentence.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/man-allegedly-stole-thousands-to-spend-on-sleazy-flash-1567338656]


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[Exterminas]

I like the way how that FBI-Man qualified his statements. Makes him sound competent to me.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Wait wait wait. Are you telling me that not only is Evony a game that still exists, but people are still actually playing it and spending money on it? That's a shocker.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Wow, Evony still... exists? Wow. That's just depressing.

 

[Strazdas]

650% Return....be serious. No seriously. be serious.. if someone comes with a deal *that* good that should set off alarms like muslim reciting the quaran in an airport terminal.

well, the fast credit firms do get 650% returns out of suckers that borrow money from them.
in fact jsut last year a law passed that their loan rate cannot legally go above 1500% and quite a few had to cut it down to comply. 1500% loan rate. and people use them.

 

[Ninmecu]

They're only worth something if the borrower actually you know, pays back.

Oh gods how I wish this was true, with all the deregulation that has gone on in the financial district you can make money out of literally nothing.

 

[Floppertje]

So er... how does a guy like that trick someone out of a few hundred thousand dollars. Seriously I know people are daft but come on, heard the phrase 'too good to be true?'

650% Return....be serious. No seriously. be serious.. if someone comes with a deal *that* good that should set off alarms like muslim reciting the quaran in an airport terminal.

Wow, that's not racist at all...

 

[Ninmecu]

They're only worth something if the borrower actually you know, pays back.

Oh gods how I wish this was true, with all the deregulation that has gone on in the financial district you can make money out of literally nothing.

Which explains so much about the current state of the global economy. Common sense. If someone promises you that kind of return ... it's a lie or illegal, or likely both. Because honestly if someone had a way to get that much of a return they wouldn't be talking to you... they'd have taken out a bank loan and invested that. with that level of return the yield vastly outstrips the cost. If you borrow 40K and get back 240K you've pretty much walked out with a mint after 1 iteration and you can use the 100K of your 200K profit to invest in the next iteration and get 600K.

See, people who have the ability to spin chafffe into gold likely wouldn't want to share that with anyone.

That's why I find the "Science of Economics" so god damned funny. Unlike other fields of science which develop more complex theories and methodologies to analyze things they couldn't have imagined without the more advanced theories developed, the economics field creates complexity simply to hide from common knowledge how certain things work. Watch a few interviews where people ask how certain aspects of the financial market work, they either dodge the question entirely or simply laugh it off and try and change the subject. It's lamentable to me that we still rely on Fractal Reserve Banking. But that's a whole other issue.

 

[Lieju]

So er... how does a guy like that trick someone out of a few hundred thousand dollars. Seriously I know people are daft but come on, heard the phrase 'too good to be true?'

650% Return....be serious. No seriously. be serious.. if someone comes with a deal *that* good that should set off alarms like muslim reciting the quaran in an airport terminal.

Wow, that's not racist at all...

No it's pretty factual from what I hear. If you look vaguely muslim in the US and start quoting the quaran in an airport you will become very familiar with rubber gloves. You're also likely going to be walking to where ever you were planning on flying to.

Except the way you phrased it, it comes across as if you're implying a muslim reciting the Quran in an airport terminal SHOULD set off the alarm.

Poorly put.

 

[RealRT]

So, we got a con-man who is a fucking idiot and a non-gamer FBI agent who is not being judgmental of games even with an example as horrible as this, which I like.
I want a movie about these guys.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

So er... how does a guy like that trick someone out of a few hundred thousand dollars. Seriously I know people are daft but come on, heard the phrase 'too good to be true?'

650% Return....be serious. No seriously. be serious.. if someone comes with a deal *that* good that should set off alarms like muslim reciting the quaran in an airport terminal.

Wow, that's not racist at all...

No it's pretty factual from what I hear. If you look vaguely muslim in the US and start quoting the quaran in an airport you will become very familiar with rubber gloves. You're also likely going to be walking to where ever you were planning on flying to.

Except the way you phrased it, it comes across as if you're implying a muslim reciting the Quran in an airport terminal SHOULD set off the alarm.

Poorly put.

Eh? Not sure how you got a should out of that.


You know, if someone took my money, I'd at least want them to spend it on something awesome, like fast cars, cocaine and trips to Vegas. This would just be the turd-flavoured icing on a shit cake.

 

[Skeleon]

20 years for defrauding 45.000 dollars? Outrageous. And in the meantime, people who've damaged the entire economy, defrauded for billions and caused harm to countless people everywhere get away with basically nothing. I honestly hope this guy doesn't get anywhere near that high a punishment.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Well...at the agent seems like a smart guy. Don't worry Mr.FBI, I don't get it either, at least, definitely not a game like that. I'm glad someone isn't jumping on the "I don't play video games, so therefore they must be evil as a whole" bandwagon. Was this case of spending a lot of money on a game bad? Yes. Is it reflective of all gaming? No. And it's nice to see that guy might understand that.