From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 09:51:53 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Laundering money through commodity futures
Message-ID: <9404191645.AA14159@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


One problem with using bet-doubling systems to pay bribes with,
whether it's in the futures market or in the casino,
is that you not only have to convince the bribee to accept the bribe
and participate in a money-laundering process, you have to
get him to be willing to accept a few powers of two losses
before receiving the bribe.  If the bribe is small relative to the
liquidity of the bribee, that's fine, as long as you've got enough
trust between you that the bribee isn't worried about you walking away
when you've won n*2**4 and she's lost it.  But if you're trying to
bribe, say, an enterprising southern lawyer whose husband's a politician,
with a high fraction of her net worth, she's *not* going to be in
a position to cover your bets for n*16 even if she *does* trust you. 

On the other hand, finding an enterprising broker to switch owners of
futures contracts for a small extra commission may not be so hard.