Category: crime

The Cannon Ball Run or the Gumball Rally, Except for Real??

On By southwerkIn crime

The Cannonball Run was a 1981 action/comedy film starring Burt Reynolds and directed by Hal Needham. Not only silly and often in poor taste, it was entirely fictional. And this is important because if you do this stuff in real life … Well, it is not good.

An earlier movie with the same basic idea was made in 1976. The Gumball Rally was a racing film/comedy inspired by Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. These incidents (I’m not sure the word race actually fits these situations) were first and second a movie made for entertainment which by the way I very much enjoyed (the second one, anyway) and the third a series of five races covered and probably created by the magazine, Car and Driver, in the early 1970’s, were all very much pre-internet.

And of course, my dear readers, as you are well aware the Internet can mess up anything.

Currently we have some rather poor specimens of humanity who are also referred to as “influencers,” and they had to as always do something stupid. Although stupid may be too weak a word? Can you say Super Stupid? Is that a usable phrase?

Well, have a read and see what you think.

(Couldn’t find a race car in my data base of public domain pictures but this will do.)

In an article entitled, YouTubers drag raced through Grand Teton National Park. Park rangers had thoughts written by Jacqueline Kehoe, she explains what has just happened. In my opinion, we have a new and pitiful sort of Gumball Rally or one of those Cannonball things.

https://creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/youtubers-drag-raced-through-grand-teton-national-park-park-rangers-had-thoughts-142142281.html

In a move that’s equal parts reckless and ridiculous, a group of luxury sports car drivers turned Grand Teton National Park into their personal racetrack — and paid the price for it.

On Tuesday, June 24, around 5 p.m., park rangers at Grand Teton National Park responded to reports of high-end sports cars drag racing along Teton Park Road — a serene, two-lane scenic route that skirts the base of the mighty Teton Range. The road, typically used by wildlife watchers, photographers, hikers, and families, became the site of an impromptu (and illegal) motorsport event. The result? Four drivers arrested, two cars impounded, and a slew of federal charges.

I really feel that you should read the article. Ms. Kehoe has a definite way with words, and you might pay particular attention to the names of the perps and, I don’t know, maybe share them on social media? It seems only fair.

After all they raced at high speed down a recreational road in a national park used by families and wildlife. I tend toward a certain level of hostility at them for this. You might very well feel that way too. The only reason they didn’t kill anybody was dumb luck.

If you want to race, find and hire a track. They’re are a lot of them.

As for desecrating a national park. Just don’t.

James Alan Pilant

Ninety Laptops!

On By southwerkIn crime

Christina Chapman became a front, that is, a “facilitator,” for a North Korean Operation in the United States. She found jobs for thousands of workers. The companies hiring thought they were hiring American citizens, instead they were hiring North Koreans. The money these workers earned was used for such things as the North Korean nuclear program.

Thousands of identities were stolen to make this fraudulent and illegal practice work. Chapman knew she was committing crimes but the money was very good.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/03/ninety-laptops-millions-of-dollars-us-woman-jailed-for-role-in-north-korea-remote-work-scam

(Quoted from the article linked to above.) To run the schemes, the North Koreans need facilitators in the United States, because the companies “aren’t going to willingly send laptops to North Korea or even China”, said Adam Meyers, head of counter-adversary operations for CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. “They find somebody that is also looking for a gig-economy job, and they say, ‘Hey, we are happy to get you $200 per laptop that you manage,’” said Meyers, whose team has published reports on the North Korean operation. Chapman grew up in an abusive home and drifted “between low-paying jobs and unstable housing”, according to documents submitted by her attorneys. In 2020, she was also taking care of her mother, who had been diagnosed with renal cancer.About six months after the LinkedIn message, Chapman started running what law enforcement officials describe as “laptop farms”. (End Quote.)

She ran the scheme for about three years and it generated roughly seventeen million dollars for the North Koreans. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. She was sentenced to more than eight years in prison and to pay fines.

Of course, the money the North Koreans made was one thing but the value of the information they got as employees of major American companies will never be known.

This was a betrayal, and COVID and hard times are not much of an excuse for committing massive fraud on behalf of a foreign nation.

What’s the business ethics analysis here? This is a set of crimes and the perpetrator was well aware that she was committing federal crimes. Breaking the law particularly in cooperation with a foreign power is an obvious ethics failure. No deeper reasoning is merited here. This was wrong and there is no defense merely a relative handful of mitigating circumstances.

J. Pilant