Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Redistribution Of Wealth

It’s apparently still illegal:
German 'Robin Hood' banker gets suspended sentence

A German bank employee who secretly transferred money from rich to poor clients has been given a 22-month suspended prison term.

The 62-year-old woman, dubbed the 'Robin Hood Banker', moved more than $11m (£7m) in 117 transfers.

The court in Bonn was told that the employee, who has not been named, took no money for herself.

The bank made a loss of more than $1.5m (£1m) when poor customers were unable to pay back unauthorised overdrafts.

The employee was accused of allowing overdrafts for customers who would not normally qualify for them.

I have one question for this woman: why’d you do it? Was it compassion for the people who were overdrawn? A sense of the injustice that some customers would have so much, while others had so little?

Or just an obsessive-compulsive need to make sure everything tallied up at the end of the month?

I’m dying to know. And I think this story would make a fascinating screenplay.

(h/t, Moonbootica)