Finally, a data-security breach story with a happy ending. Hopefully more theives will jump on this bandwagon as it appears to be fairly lucrative.

Hope that 30% is worth a lifetime in hiding over cash...

so where's the list...

hey, better he sells it to the gov'ment than scammers.

He is awesome because I am so sick of the uber rich getting to do as they please while the working class stiffs such as myself follow the laws and still get the shaft. He deserves every penny he got and I hope it allowed him to retired someplace nice.

And I thought Crimestoppers was lucrative....

Good for him.

This guy just made it on hit list of many very wealthly and ethically challenged people. I wouldn't expect him to live toolong. What a bad-ass though.

@catdogpigduck: He's gonna get fitted for a fancy new pair of cement shoes soon, I figure.

@LuvJones: Well, it's a well known fact that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.

So who's in this Pentavirate? The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds and Col. Sanders before he went tits up.

ya but if i sell the cd player i stole outa my neighbors car to a cop, ill still go to jail, so should he.

i didnt steal my neighbors cd player btw.

Greed knows no bounds...you make millions as a CEO and that's not good enough, you have to cheat the government on top of it all? Scumbags.

Ironically, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that none of the rich tax cheats are going to be pursued in the US. We may see an uptick in political contributions from their companies, but no penalty for the tax cheats. Gawd I am so cynical.

@MayorBee: i thought they were called Veritos or something and were protecting the "TRAVELER"

@MayorBee: Turn off the Bay City Rollers.

@MayorBee: Very good Mr. S. Mackenzie. But I fear you know too much. You must now be dealt with in a much unfamiliar way.

The poor guy in the photo as a joke, some idiot from one of those companies will think it's really his mugshot and hire people to kill him.

Good for him!

Nail the tax dodging ubber rich I say and in this case, the ends justify the means.

Even though I don't like people who are able to avoid taxes, I don't think what this person done is right..... and if I had to pick between the tax cheaters or the person who stole data - I would have to pick the person who stole data as the person MORE in the wrong.

That would be like me breaking into a house, find some illegal drugs, going to the cops to tell them, then getting an award for breaking in the house and turning in the drug dealers.

What a dick. Taxes suck, and evading them is the right thing to do.

@fostina1:

I was gonna say the same thing. It's great that he forced super-rich tax evaders to fork over money to the Infernal Revenue Service, but he broke the law to do it. No one sees anything wrong with that?

Breaking the law to punish law-breakers. Hmmm...

Cheers!

@MayorBee: He's going to be crying himself to sleep on a giant pillow.

@Hamm Beerger:
Agree 100%. Tax evaders are not criminals, they are heroes. We should all do our part to pay as little in taxes as possible.

@harvey_birdman_attorney_at_law: Same with insurance fraud. The more compensation they receive, the more I pay! It's win-win.

Wouldn't this be more like dealing with crooked cops? You can't rat them out to your people so you have to take it to other authorities? I mean, the people running the bank have a vested interest in keeping the tax evaded money there, and they just claim ignorance. They are just as wrong as the people evading. I think it's a rock/hard place situation and this guy took the high road. Kudos!

I'm a little torn on this one. Both parties are actually thieves. One stole data, the other essentially stole thousands to millions of dollars by not paying what they owe, while the rest of us do.
Actually, I'm not really that torn. Fuck you, richies. I'm not paying for your infrastructure so you can drive the 3 new cars you got due to not paying.

I think as far as US whistleblower laws go, people can provide information they are not otherwise allowed to take with them for personal reasons from that business or entity as part of the whistleblower action.
Otherwise you would have hospital employees in jail for turning in Medicare fraud because they turned over data from that hospital or clinic without the business's permission.

This guy is my new hero. Nothing annoys me more than the fact that the IRS will hound some small guy over a few grand in back taxes and potentially jail them while totally ignoring rich tax cheats who dodge on paying MILLIONS in taxes.

@coan_net:

This essentially just happened when a thief broke into a van containing explosives and other dangerous materials. He drove the van to a pier and then called the cops. He didn't get in trouble, and the cops actually say that he is a hero for doing it. I agree. Is it worse to steal data or worse to steal a whole crapload of money, essentially from everyone on this blog? I take more offense to the encompassing nature of the latter, especially since I am personally involved.

This guy is sort of acting like Robin Hood in a way. Even though what he did was illegal, he did a good thing. Why should the rich not have to pay their taxes while others do. He was just doing a good deed.

On a side note, if most Gawker article writers are paid by page views, if I have no life and keep refreshing the page does Meg make more money? That could be a good deed.

@kylo4: Some say the true story of Robin Hood is he stole the taxes from the Government, and gave them back to the people.

No doubt he ratted on a bunch of greedy bastards, but what for instance is the US government going to do with the money collected? Oil subsidy? War with Iran? Which are really just extra payouts to the rich. These wealthy tax-shirkers are being considerate by saving the taxpayers money in lawyer fees for additional no-bid contracts.

We should all stop paying taxes. They'd run out of jail cells soon enough.

I'd say he falls into hero status on this one. If you think about it he had all of the banking information and transaction histories on the rich and richer for 12 major countries.

30% of back taxes is a drop in the bucket compared to what he could have skimmed off of these accounts without much effort. He could have even hidden his activities because in researching the skimming the tax evasion issues would have been exposed.

When you want justice, not just the rule of law, thieves are sometimes necessary.

@MayorBee: Love that movie! HEAD!

To the surprise of nobody...

Whatever his motivations, I'm glad he did it.

30% ??????

I thought the finder's fee was 10%.

For 30% I will be on the lookout for more people to turn-in. I got an uncle that I think is hiding money from an undeclared source in his mattress.

Wow! Great! The US is going to confiscate so much money as a result of this that we small taxpayers are going to see the refund of a lifetime! And all the welfare services that have been getting pinched for lack of funds can oblige their truly generous and helpful nature! And the economy will recover and everything! What are YOU going to buy with your share of the looters' cash?

Jesus...I'd think it much safer to just pick the largest cheat, and out him. Maybe space them out over time so your trail can be nice and cold. That way if you get assassinated, it'll be pretty clear who did it. This way there are so many suspects any one of them could get away with it.

@TechnoDestructo: No, I think the odds are much better that he "bought" protection by leaving certain key people OFF of the list.

@speedwell: Imagine how many bombs the loot can buy! Or, wait... maybe we can bail out another deserving airline!

@Techguy1138: "I'd say he falls into hero status on this one. If you think about it he had all of the banking information and transaction histories on the rich and richer for 12 major countries."

So some scum bag thief who was stealing banking information analyzed the cost/benefit ratio of the situation,realized he'd make more by robbing the account holders directly but decided to do the right thing and "only" make 30 percent off their illegal holdings?

Please. I hate rich people who pay less in taxes than I do just as much as the next Consumerist reader, but this is a ridiculous assumption. Selling out his fellow criminals was an easier, faster way to cash in than stealing from them.

Vigilantes are awesome, but snitches looking to make a quick buck should and will be hunted down by those they betrayed.

Theifs? Keeping your own hard earned money is theft? Funny, I thaught when someone took your money without your willingness it was theft. Times have changed I suppose.

@Corporate-Shill:
They now charge a fee to investigate that person because everyone was turning in their neighbors and their grandparents. If something turns out then you win, if not you lose

@NotATool: i don't think so - one nice thing about the IRS - you owe them money, you pay or you go to jail (or both). probably one of that last government agencies that still has some teeth (though that corruption issue a few years back caused some major internal problems).

i would imagine that if this list yields some prominent names, amnesty will be granted for prompt payment (plus interest), but those that decide to lawyer up & drag it thru court will end up paying & going to jail (& losing their jobs, their trophy wives, that house in the hamptons).

you don't ever get away without paying though. ever. they will always find you.

personally, i think this is poetic justice for the "mr. p. brain, m/b/a"s of the world that brought our economy to its knees with their piss-poor short-term over long-term corporate strategies, burning bridges as they trampled over everything & everyone. to be brought down by a lowly computer geek. keiber, FTW! (now, duck & cover).

Hero? I wouldn't go so far to go and call him that. Nor would I assume his motivation to expose the tax evaders was to make the rest of us feel better.

The guy did uncover the information through illegal means, and we're supposed the assume he intention was virtuous?

He probably blackmailed a couple people, (maybe one did pay) and ran into a brick wall with the next guy. Since he had a whole list, he probably noticed how much of a hassle it would be to blackmail everyone (even at one-at-a-time) Keep in mind these are probably powerful people too. So why not hand the info to the local governments, have them deal with the mess, and get a nice side profit without have to deal with watching over your back all the time?

[img.photobucket.com]

Nuff said.

I think you all are missing the point:

Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do...

@blong81: Don't kid yourself- when you don't pay your taxes someone has to pick up the slack. You are, in fact, stealing from all of the people who do pay their taxes, either because they're scared of the I.R.S., or they have integrity.

This guy's not my hero, Italy is my hero. I would love to see a list of rich Americans who can't be bothered to pay their taxes.

/Remember, taxes pay soldiers' salaries. Do you support the troops?

All you fools complaining about paying taxes are ridiculous. My being gainfully employed in these United States of America, you signed up to pay taxes. Don't like it? You're free to live in another country.

Taxes suck, but we all gotta pay 'em. Its the way its always been, and its the way its always gonna be. Stop bitching.

If I knew some multi-millionaire people that were evading taxes, I'd turn 'em in too. 30% of 100k is 30k. Yes please.

Now, I'll go back to my search for Bin Laden so I can collect my 25mil.