I stole over 1.6 million dollars from an Australian bank thanks to an ATM loophole, spent it all on private jets, girls and epic parties, but then after 4 and a half months I felt incredibly guilty, turned myself in, got punished with a year in ja...

Whats the most annoying thing people do when ordering drinks at a bar?

I think when they start to talk about stories that are not intersting at all in anyway. They speak to you about it like its the most amaing thing. So you might be making a cuple of cocktails and they are talking to you about this epic story, but it;'s not and you're rapped and have to listen to it... which is fine for nice people, but some people are ust arogant and you get trapped in a bad story or are getting too much information.

Make me something fruity.

🍹🍹🍹

How on earth did the Bank never realize that it was losing so much cash? Was it always the same ATM you hit up or different ones across the country? What’s the most you withdrew at once from one machine? Did you have a regular system like, you’d get cash every day or once a week?

So using the ATM's I could transfer money between my accounts. And this was fictitious money, it was money that didn't exist. So I'm transferring over millions of dollars, the bank is saying 'Transaction Declined' but it worked even though this was money I didn' actually have. So the bank when they looked, they saw the balance was $1.2 million in credit and they honour the transactions. But I'm not an IT expert, so I don't really know how it happened. Would love to know why though. I could do it at any NAB ATM right across the country.

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There was no regular system. I just did the transfers every day, to cover what I spent and to make sure there was still money in the account. I had two cards so I could get out 2 grand a day, but then I could just walk into the branch and pull out $50K or whatver I needed in one go.

Do you have any regrets?

Yeah there is probably one regret... when your mum or someone you love comes to visit you in jail and you stare across at them and you can tell they've just been put through security and generally just been put through the ringer. And they are sitting there with this look on their face like "Why am I visiting you here? Why did you put us through this?"

This sounds like the plot of a Franco/Rogen movie. Would you be cool with Seth Rogen playing you?

Yeah Seth's okay, bit of a fan of his work. Always thought maybe a Vince Vaughn cause I'm bigger, I'm taller. But Seth is pretty good.

No need to sugarcoat it, Seth Rogen blows and this dude does not want him playing him.

u/HookersFoDahl2017 you see right through me. I was sugarcoating absolutely! 😂😂😂

Don't worry OP you look more like Vince than Seth.

👍

Was there a particular experience that you can recall that broke the camels back as far as guilt?

Good question! It was probably when, I think it was my brother, said to me "You're really different".

And I said to him, "What do you mean?"

And he was like, "You're just really different, are you okay?"

I think those words really stayed with me.

I was flying all around the country, I had 3 or 4 hotel suites on the go... so yeah that kind of made me think it was time to stop or otherwise it was time to transfer money out or head overseas. Yeah that was the point.

At first, weren't you hesitant our troubled with "stealing" the money and spending it like that?

What did your friends think of it, and more importantly are they still your friends?

I'm curious on what made you turning yourself in? Do you think it has to do with your upbringing and morals or was the burden of living with this secret to big for you to continue?

Friends? A few of them came along for the ride. A couple were a it hesitant and didn't want me to get into trouble and said, "Hey if you go and spread that cards wings and see how far it's going to take you, that is fine but that is not for me." Of course I respcted their decisions. And yeah, there were other mates who were, "Yeah yeah yeah lets do it! You only get one life and let's give this a crack!"

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But yeah my friends who were really friends stuck around. I mean I didn't do anything to my friends apart from shout them a lot of tings so there wasn't really a reason to be angry with me. But some people get scared when their are big business and police involed and after you and they don't want to be associated with that. But that is fine. You don't get a lot of opportunities to test ut your friends like this really.

Did any of your friends get arrested for being accomplices to your crime seeing as they knew how you got the money?

No, no friends were arrested in the making of this story no.

Well it was curiousity that fueled it, but then I also thought it was my debt, on my card, I'm just going to owe some money to a bank and who doesn't owe a bank money at some point in their life. Oh and I probably got addicted to private jets too. 😂

And why did I turn myself in? I did't like who I was turning into in reagrds to my life in Australia. I thought there might be some crazy fugitive life for me overseas somewhere. Part of me definitely wanted to do it.Pat of me still thinks about doing it to this day. But it's a big decision to leave your family and friends and they not know about what is going on. And when I started thinking about that... I knew I had to turn myself in. I was always going to own up to it one way or the other.

What would you do different?

Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but in reality we don't get to use it. I don't second guess things. I'd just do everything the same.

...kind of feels like you didn't learn much from this whole experience.

Yeah I can see what you are saying. I learnt a lot of things. When you put s story like this 'out there' I guess it can look a bit like show boating, I mean I"m largely not in charge of the delivery of the story...just providing the content. Its been 7 years since it happened and generally I'm a happy man who loves banter so I can see how that translates to 'not having a care in the world'. (I hope this answers your question....if not please say so)

Have you ever been approached about using your story for a movie? I would easily go watch it.

No havent been approached. Did the podcast with Adam (link above) but to this day I guess I still fell like I am in a movie, so I guess I understand how it would translate.

How long did it take to find the loophole?

Were you specifically looking for a loophole?

How quickly did they fix it after it was exploited?

Did the bank ever contact you to maybe make sure it was fixed or something?

Well there was no set day where I thought "Oh I've found a loophole!"

I sort of just figured it out over time and curiosity then got me the better of me.

This sounds funny, but it wasn't even about the money, it was more about the journey. It was about the life experience. I could take or leave the money. But it was a very addictive experience. You felt like a secret agent, making money apear from thin air and live it up. It was very addictive and fun.

I don't think the bank realised what I was doing until I stopped doing it. I'm sure they've fixed the problem, I'm sure they have. But they never wanted to consult with me, the most I heard from them was that the police were coming for me.

How do you feel about their handling of the security flaw? Do you think it is typical to not accept help by the attacker but rather punish them for admitting what they did?

Yeah they definitely could have handled it better......they didn't expect me to be so forthcoming about it I don't think. Yes reading some royal commission stuff I think it's probably extremely typical.

Would you do it again?

Hopefully now, I'm firmly on the radar and will not have to make that choice again.

All I'm going to say is that, hanging out in Bora Bora with Sports Illustrated models is kinda fun. It's hard to say no to a good time... but at the end of the day I wouldn't have to make that decision because I'm firmly on the radar.

How did the money give you access to these women? Were they hookers? Or just floozies drawn to big spenders in the club?

It's hard to explain....pretty much when you have money like and are spending it in that way....people just flock to you. You don't really have to actively seek out attention.

Dude.... be honest. You MUST have stashed some cash away right? Like full Shawshank Redemption style, just buried a cool million under a tree somewhere that you can go and grab when you the po po aren't on your case no more? You can tell me bro, I won't snitch!

There are heaps of places you can stash money these days, you don't really have to do it under a tree. 😁

You can give it to a casino, you can give it to a hotel even to hold onto you know. I'm pretty certain The Ritz in Paris keeps money for people if they stay there a lot, for sure.

In an answer no. I'm sure you wouldn't snitch u/mindtheedge but I'm sure about the rest of Reddit! Hahahaha.

Umm 100% no comment.

If I'm understanding you correctly... How could you __ when you felt guilty and turned yourself in about the same thing?

Also, you ever think that was a waste of 1 year being in jail?

It was mixture....I felt guilty and also I wanted to know what they were going to do to me. I asked questions for around 2 years privately and no one could answer me exactly so thats why I went public.

Jail is just that....time wasting....it's a business these days.

Were you forced to not disclose the method? If not, could you disclose how it came about, and how it worked? Without revealing branch/atm? Did it work on any atm? Was it accessed online or did you need access to hardware?

Yes so I was basically transferring money between my accounts on the ATM. each time it was coming up 'Transcation Cancelled', but each time it actually worked. My accounts would be debited for the ammounts that I spent, but as long as I kept the transfers over that ammount then the bank thought I still had money in there. So I was able to alter my account balance with the ATM, but then I could just walk into the branch and withdraw $50K from my account because they saw that I had a couple million in there. It was glitch with the whole network of ATM's. I tell yu what though, people in the bank certainly perk up when they see you have a couple of million in the account that is for sure.

Blows my mind that an average joe can randomly start withdrawing $50k and have a balance in the millions without someone looking at your history and realizing that shit ain’t right. But good for you brotha got to live a life we all dream of for a bit.

The only thing I can think of is that different departments of the bank dont talk to each other. If I went to a teller...all they had access to initially was just my account balance. So they just handed over the money......to this day I think its out of this world.

The perfect glitch if that was the case. Pretty sure the IRS would be knocking on your door real quick if you just randomly started withdrawing $50k at a time in the US haha. Aussies know how to party.

I expected it to end after 1 week.....it just snowballed.

What a crazy ride you have , I applaud your courage to be able to turn yourself in . Question is , are your friends still your friends or they have disappeared ?

Yeah it was definitely a crazy ride. There were people who hung on because of the money and defintely people who dropped off because of the money as well. When it all went public, there were a few who stayed staunch, but plenty who cut the ribbon too so to speak.

Ahhh sorry to hear that, I guess now you can actually cherish those that stayed in touch . Best of luck to you in life !

Thank you I appreciate that, All the best!

Did any of your friends get busted with you? I mean they obviously knew you were committing crimes and were complicit in all the partying etc.

Nah just me.

Best night you had with all the parties you’ve thrown?

Best night is hard to tell, cause they all morphed into one another. But I can remember a couple of days that me and some mates drove mini-buses around time and hitting up all the backpacker hostels and telling anybody who wanted to party to get in cause we going to an epic party. We hired a massive mansion in the country and let loose.

What's your favorite drink to make yourself?

Amaretto Sours are the best. Relatively simple, but they look pretty good and taste pretty good.

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You know what, as more time goes on... I don't think I would have got caught. I had no way of knowing that though. Big banks have a lot of power and me - I'm just one guy. I just wanted it to be sorted out in the end. I was going to have to live with for the rest of my life anyway. But I don't know if they would have caught up with me.

How many transactions did it take to get 1.6 mil? Did you launder or pay in cash?

Don't know how many transactions it was, I've got all the statements... I'd have to look. It was hundreds and hundreds of them.

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I'll try to find some and post soon.

Was it really your conscience that made you turn yourself in? No one talked to you. No one threatened to expose you. No one else knew, and you decided to turn yourself in?

Yeah I think it had to be my conscience cause nobody was pushing me to do anything. NAB is a big bank, they have a lot of power. I don't think they're scared of me and I'm pretty sure they will be okay. So yeah it was definitely my conscience. I was prepared to answer any and all questions from the bank itself, but they did not want to communicate with me at all. I took my life into my own hands.

Most expensive thing you bought?

A 20-seater private jet to an island in Asia! That was about 120k from memory.

Damn. I also thought of another question. Did you meet any famous people during all of this?

I met Gordon Ramsay.....It was in an Airport lounge. I pretended I didn't know who he was.......we got talking and I said 'what do you do'? He said 'I'm a chef' I said 'oh good for you, there must be a bit of money in that'.......He was quite annoyed that I appeared to not know who he was.

Haha that’s the best way to approach celebs tho!

Most of the ones Ive met are super nice but a lot are arrogant dicks. Take Pink for example. So nice and down to Earth etc. She will chat to a waiter like they are her best friend, she is so lovely and just totally unpretentious.

What you had they money, had you though about doing anything good with it or where you just selfish?

Well it was basically one long big party where everyone was invited. The only things I did that weren't shouting people drinks, dinner, hotels, travel, all that sort of thing.. was that I asked people what their dreams were, I said hey what do you want to do cause I can make it happen.

So I paid off University fees, , sent people overseas, I sent one lady to Paris to study French cause that was always her dream, bought a vehicle for a guys new delivery company so that he could be his own boss, all sorts of things like that. I didn't buy anything big for myself cause I knew it was going to be taken off me. Plus a lot of tips, epic tips, cause I worked in hospitality and I know how important tipping is, so lots of $500 tips.

This is actually nice and I wouldn't have thought you would have done that. No matter if it was your money or not.

It was so fun seeing peoples faces when you did stuff like that! I remember once I was in a taxi and the driver was going, "Slow night tonight, going to be a long one."

So for a 20 buck fare I just gave him $300 and told him to home and have the night off.

Do you ever get recognised by members of the public?

And is there anything that you spent money on at the time that you’ve kept and still really value? (other than experiences!)

Also, gotta say I love this quote from one of the articles: “I felt like a rock star, but I probably looked like a fat white Kanye West”

Sometimes.....some people feel the need to have a go at me. I guess it's fair enough...I'm always interested to hear what people would have done in the same situation. I guess that It was initially hard to feel bad about screwing a bank because they screw people every day and they started doing it way before I came along. That was the initial thinking that spurred the beginning of it all. But that was wrong, just because they are bad doesn't justify me being so.

Umm I think I really value the experiences I was able to give to people....it was about more than just the money for me #yolo

Fat white Kanye....thats exactly what I must have looked like. It felt amazing....but I must have looked like a dick.....anyway no one cares when you've got money.

When you found out no one was onto you, were you pissed you turned yourself in or were you just happy to be paying your debt?

Nah I was never pissed about it, just kinda surprised. I mean who ever would have thought it was up to me to get the crime solved, to actually get the ball rolling on an investigation. Who steals millions of bucks from the bank and then has to call them to tell them about it? Hahahaha. To this day I really don't understand that. It must have been a massive glitch.

Do you still have the things you bought with the stolen money?

Some, but nothing too significant......suits and things like that.

I guess you can't really answer this, but if I were you, I would have stored a massive amount of gold or high value product in a secret location, and use that a decade or so from now when all of this blows over.

Does the apple fall far from the tree?

100% I cant answer that.....but I'm interested to hear what other people would have done for sure.

I would have completely rinsed them and stashed a large sum for years to come. Fuck the banks. They will jump to take anything we have and over charge us for the smallest pile of wank. They can fuck right off

You wouldn't believe the amount of messages I get that say just the same thing. The Banks have definitely pissed some people off thats for sure.

Why did you turn yourself in? What were the emotions going through your head as you decided that you would turn yourself in?

I didn't want to become a totally different person....I was willing to push the envelope for a bit but it got totally out of hand......the mission from the start wasn't get all you can at all costs. It was more curiosity.

Is 'This was fun, but I really need to get things back to normal now' a good way to summarize?

Spot On Yes. It was never my intention starting out for it to get so big.....curiosity killed the cat so to speak.

If you had the option, would you go back in time and use the money more responsibly?

I think cause the money was obtained in a crazy way, I spent it in a crazy way. If I got that ammount of money through another means, I don't think I would have spent it in the same way on private jets, and girls and parties. It sort of snowballed into this uncontrollable thing that just kept rolling.

1st let me say to you congratulations on your magic trick 😄. Very brave of you to turn yourself in.. help me to understand the ATM glitch - even though you have said it multiple times.

You do a transfer from credit to debit/savings for $xxxx.xx and it would say declined insufficient funds, then when you used your savings/debit card the $xxxx.xx + what you already had was available. Did the amount on your credit change? Did your saving/debit balance show any change on transaction receipt?

I wonder why the people who manage the ATMs did see this in the logs? oh well their loss.

I would have bought a ton of crypto 😉

I never shied away from it...I knew it was kinda wrong but I just wanted to see what happened next. The whole thing had me super intrigued. There was a few options you could take. Mastercard to credit card (essentially the same account) which would take over night to go through and then mastercard to savings which would work instantly. It would say transaction cancelled and just spit the card out. But it worked. Not sure why to this day.

do you exist?? Heard some news stories about Australians being fake or some shit...

Nah cunt just messing ya, absolute fucking legend though would of been a blast with 1.6m. Understand the guilt tho bro!

I'm about 120kgs and 6''4.....I assure you I exist.

When was this? I almost cannot imagine a bank of today not doing their due diligence when all of a sudden a client lives that kind of a life. Even withdrawing 50k at once would certainly trigger an internal compliance review... Or adding that much money as well... With todays regulatory requirements for banks this is definitely impossible...

It was in 2011....I think banks more and more are starting to realize they need to bank in 'real time' otherwise they leave themselves open to not being able to pick things up straight away. It was a 'Magic Show' I created the 'Illusion' the money was there.

I don't think it has anything to do with banks doing their stuff in realtime. What I'm saying is that whatever happens on your account, regardless of it's fictitious money or not and regardless of how fast the transactions are made, banks would have to raise a lot of red flags with that kind of account activity. If someone has regular tranactions in the range of, let's say, 10 to 1000 dollars, and then suddenly has 50k on the account or withdraws 50k, this raises a red flag. Especially since it was in 2011, after the 2008 crisis which was one of the reasons banks were forced to spend lots of money to be compliant with regards to the local and global regulations. I almost cannot believe how such a bank would not notice this kind of suspicious activity. Again, I'm not talking about the mechanism by which you "obtained" the money, I'm talking about the general account maintenance. I'm not saying it's not true, it's just hard to accept that this was really not flagged in 2011...

I have no Idea either way.....but I did take 10 to 50k out on regular occasions. Sometimes even up to 75k in one hit.

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Look if guilt wasn't a part of it, I wouldn't be talking to you now. I probably wouldn't have gone to jail and I'd be living in Majorca right now. I definitely gave it a ride for a while, but essentially I owned up to this. I never shied away from this even when the bank didn't want to do anything about it. I didn't know what the bank was going to do I just played my cards first.

I read your story a while back. Really fascinating. How are things between you and your family now?

Telling the story, it's a bit of... getting it all off my chest. This is all fascinating to me too cause I like to pose that question to people, like if you were faced with the same situation what would you do?

Things with the family? Really good! Slotted back into a routine and things like that. If I didn't own up to it, there would be so many lies hanging around us. I'm glad we're all in a good place. It's just normal family stuff now.

What’s the single craziest thing you bought with the money you got?

Probably a 18k per night hotel suite and a 2k bottle of Bordeaux

I can’t even imagine a 18k per night hotel room

Basically like a luxury house in the sky.

You mention girls plenty of times. Did they just flock to you because they saw you spending loads of cash at the club or what?

Yeah absolutely....Sydney in Australia is massive for this type of thing. If you look like you have plenty then they make themselves known for sure. I remember I was shouting drinks at a big city restaurant and a lady walked up and asked if 'I was the richest guy in Australia'? I said 'No way, I think I'm about 7th' within around 20 mins 4 of her friends were at the bar all wanting to have a chat. I think that's why by that point I didn't want to stop....When people want to know you It makes you feel like you are on top of the world.....even if it was all fabricated by the free flowing cash. My friend had a saying which he used to say all the time. 'Imagine this was your life'

Was it worth it?

There is a bit for and against but in a word.....Yes.

Do you like pineapple on pizza?

If I'm drunk....but otherwise No.

What was your experience in prison like? Did you see any crazy shit? Do you feel like you have 'paid back your debt to society'

When I went to prison originally I had outstanding court cases, so I went to Maximum Security. It was pretty crazy. Hectic is probably the word to describe it. I saw a guy take a leap off a second storey balcony and ram his head into the ground, he killed himself. That was the height of crazy. There was a fight every day, it was a nice place that is for sure.

My debt to society would have been better paid in the community. Actually doing community work. That would have been more beneficial. But that is out of my control. The reason I costed taxpayers money in the end was because they didn't come up with an innovative solution to punish me.

Because your community service wouldn't equal a million. You'd have to do community service for life.

Also, ordering you to pay back a million is stupid because you wouldn't ever make that money.

There is no good way to recoup that money.

The taxpayers got shafted because you are a criminal and stole money.

Yeah but I mean I could have contributed something.....I have 2 arms and 2 legs. Surely 5 years of community work would have been far more productive.....

Yeah, but still not $1,000,000 something

Fair enough....but I can pick up rubbish with the best of them. Just saying.

Did the law compensates for turning yourself in?

Yeah I think it did. I plead guilty ofcourse, because I totally was.

What were the factual differences between your case and Luke Moore’s case where the facts look similar but his conviction was quashed (other than the fact he was in nsw)?

I'm not sure of the exact differences....I only really know exactly about mine obviously.....I think the source for his was a unlimited mortgage account from memory.

I think mine was possible to get off as well but ultimately I wasn't interested on getting away with it.....the whole thing messed with head enough :) I wasn't about to get tricky when it went to court.

Why did you feel so guilty? Banks have millions and evict people from their houses without feeling any guilt whatsoever. You didn't harm anyone working there and the only ones that were damaged in any way would be the owners of the bank, but the money of money you "stole" would be insignificant to them anyway.

Yeah you are dead right....I think thats why I was cool with the whole thing up until a certain point. I know that it's a drop in the ocean for them and they wouldn't worry about losing that amount at all.....to them I'm insignificant. I guess ultimately I didn't want to lose myself....I had fun to a point etc but if I eventually ran from it there was no turning back. I guess I bitched out in a lot of ways....Its one thing to dream of it and then another thing to actually have it happen.

How did you do it?

Click on the links above. There is also a detailed description in the podcast called ATM Boy.

What's the most expensive thing you bought?

What is the craziest experience you had?

The whole thing collectively. If I was to single something out probably a 20 seater private jet to some Island in Asia and hiring half the resort.

Did you give anything to charity? Why or why not?

I bought people things and gave massive tips to low paid workers.....I didn't really know how much money I would end up taking, it was a big hot mess really

my question is,how old are you?

Now I'm 37...but this happened in 2011 when I was 29

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They took everything off me so I have nothing now. I'm sorry. If Im ever in the money again I will contact you and buy one of your paintings.

How did you discover it let you take out money you didn’t actually have?

Just by chance.....I just happened to use the ATM when it was down at night. Then I tried to win the money back I'd spent and got deeper and deeper into a hole.

when you say win.. were you playing the pokies?

Playing Horses, sports bets, NBA etc

Why do you appear so proud of your deception? It cost us taxpayers money and you only got away with a year in jail. How do you sleep at night? That’s my question.

I think proud is probably the wrong word. It's funny... when you get faced with this conundrum right. I've received messages from people who said if they were faced with this situation what they would do... it's almost 50/50. Some say they absolutely wouldn't, some say they are curious, some say they definitely would. I was curious. Now the only reason anybosy is talking about is, is cause I talked about it. I guess I get flak for owning up to what you did, but you also get some people who appreciate that you owned up to your mistakes.

I mean the Royal Comission has just told the NAB to pay back 314 million dollars to people they overcharged wrongly. So...

How do I speep at night? Lots of valium? And in terms of what I owe taxpayers, I guess I owe you 0.0001 of a cent.