Word: caperers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...hours after the police found a strange collection of characters at the Watergate. (Actually, Watergate was a regular soap opera of the fortuitous: if one of the burglars had not stupidly left tape over the latch of a rear door, the night watchman might never have discovered the caper and Congress might never have investigated and the White House tape system might never have been revealed and Richard Nixon might never have resigned.) Luck was the invisible hand that prompted Skylab to scatter its debris over Western Australia, not rush-hour Manhattan. Even transcendently foresighted NASA might admit that...
...caper makes plain that bank electronic funds-transfer systems are only as trustworthy as the people who use them. Lewis knew the procedural ropes, having earlier in his eleven years with Wells Fargo worked in the bank's computer center. Though federal officials regard Wells Fargo as a well-managed bank, some critics have wondered whether Lewis' scam went on so long in part because the bank has been adding so many branches-nine a year-that finding competent supervisors has been difficult. Cooley concedes that Lewis found "a flaw in our system." But the bank has changed...
...enforcement officers and computer experts say that the MAPS caper was typical of the kind of embezzlement that computers make possible. Transactions that once required several signatures on a piece of paper are now carried out instantly by the use of silicon microchips. With modern communications networks, money can be sent in a moment to a bank branch in the next county or in the next country. For example, the transfer of $7.9 billion last month from American banks to the Bank of England as part of the deal to free the American hostages in Iran took less than...
...coal but also in distribution rights to European films and a Namibian diamond mine. They funneled investment money through a string of paper corporations with headquarters in the U.S., and such offshore havens as the Cayman Islands and Curaçao. Although the current charges concern only the coal caper, which involved write-offs totaling $150 million, sources close to the case estimate that when all the allegedly bogus tax deductions peddled by the defendants are uncovered and toted up, the U.S. may be short between $500 million and $1 billion. That would make their swindles even bigger than...
...heart attack after undergoing surgery for removal of a cancerous tumor; in Juarez, Mexico. A graduate of a reform school and a Marine brig, McQueen was typecast for his tough roles, whether leading a prison escape (Papillon), masterminding a daring caper (The Thomas Crown Affair) or driving through a breakneck chase (Bullitt). His screen persona exemplified grace under pressure; he raised his fists but never his voice. He revealed last month that he was suffering from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer...