Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forum"...bestowed by Jesus Christ with the ability to trade commodities..."
Yep, that's what she said. A direct quote from Hawaiian flight attendant and...erm...ace commodities trader Kapua Keolanui.
Quote from an FBI agent investigating this miracle (from memory): "She neglected to tell investors that her partner was not, in fact, Jesus Christ. But a convicted con man, running a new Ponzi scheme from inside a Federal prison."
And Keolanui never traded a single commodity, but turned the money over to con man Perry Griggs and his wife Rachelle. Because they frequently praised God, loved Jesus etc.
An amazing story I caught this week on the CNBC show American Greed.
You cynical grumps will not be surprised to learn that God/Jesus/etc. were major parts of the scam. Starting with Griggs meeting his wife while doing his first stretch in a Federal pen for Ponzi-scheming. She was the daughter of a "prison missionary" who went along with Mom on her prison visits.
Griggs eventually got popped again, for scamming wealthy California investors. Rachelle claimed ignorance and skated.
She wouldn't be as lucky the last time they got nailed, ripping off a bunch of mostly working-class Hawaiians for their home equity. But that part of the scam basically started in a church group.
That was the scam Griggs managed to run from inside a light-security Federal pen. With a lot of help from his wife, and the laptop/cell phones she bribed the guards to smuggle in.
Griggs is currently doing time at a Supermax prison known as "Guantanamo North." His roommates are mostly convicted terrorists who probably don't ask Allah for much help trading commodities.
For the whole incredible story, just Google "perry griggs ponzi scheme." Or CNBC will probably be running the show again next week.
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)My in-laws got talked into several bad investments and bad deals by people they went to church with. I could be snarky and say that churches are places where the gullible foregather, but people really have an odd tendency to trust those who seem to share their religious beliefs.
That doesn't go for you fellow atheists, though. I don't trust you any more than anyone else.
mbperrin
(7,672 posts)Hey, could you move your post just a little away from mine? Little too close there, eh? And what are you doing so close?
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Does Jesus want one to make a quick buck?
dimbear
(6,271 posts)Once you start swallowing nonsense, a little more doesn't go down so hard.
progressoid
(49,988 posts)Good lord.
onager
(9,356 posts)Which is why I like to post these inspirational little stories every now and then.
My original post may have sounded like I was making fun of gullible Xian rubes. Well, OK, I sorta was...
But consider an IRS agent interviewed for the TV show - a man with over 20 years experience in running down high-profile con artists and scammers.
He interviewed Griggs. And said Perry Griggs was so likable, so believable, etc. in person, that if the agent met him without knowing Griggs' background...even HE, the IRS agent, might have invested money with him!
So I consider these stories more of a warning to check my own gullibility, since I claim to be both an "atheist" and a "skeptic." But I have my own blind spots and probably always will. Which is where the skepticism part comes in. I hope.
In wandering around the Internet, it becomes depressingly obvious that the "atheism" part is easy. But the "skeptic" part takes a lot more work.
gcomeau
(5,764 posts)...Jesus was obviously all about the personal accumulation of wealth through manipulating monetary transactions.
It's astounding how the religious can rationalize absolutely anything they want. Hmm, all powerful superbeing I claim to worship spends entire book talking about how it's hard to be rich and get into heaven, and give your stuff away to the poor, and physically assaulted a bunch of moneychangers and blah blah blah... clearly God wants me to be rich and successful because that sounds awesome and God's awesome right?!? Praise Jesus!