Author Topic: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)  (Read 70250 times)

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #195 on: January 03, 2019, 08:24:48 PM »
I was being metaphoric....  Oh and it isn't just about carat weight, you can have a hundred carats of flawed crap not worth much at all...  It is about clarity, color, and cutting...  One 3 carat colorless/flawless well cut stone can be worth from $35,000.00 to $250,000.00 I just looked it up... So if Harry's half a shoe box was filled with those... Well, you do the math..

Yeah. The source I used had about 50 different combinations of size and quality with only one cut. Because, as others have mentioned, the diamonds flowed like water in a fountain and they were taken from a god of wealth, I think they were small and clear/white (to resemble flowing water) and probably of an extremely high quality and maybe even cut (because god of wealth). Additionally, I think Valmont would know garbage diamonds from valuable diamonds. I'm thinking Harry has somewhere in the tens of millions (wholesale market value) worth of diamonds and they weren't a bunch of 35K-250K diamonds.

Offline Mira

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #196 on: January 03, 2019, 08:37:56 PM »
Yeah. The source I used had about 50 different combinations of size and quality with only one cut. Because, as others have mentioned, the diamonds flowed like water in a fountain and they were taken from a god of wealth, I think they were small and clear/white (to resemble flowing water) and probably of an extremely high quality and maybe even cut (because god of wealth). Additionally, I think Valmont would know garbage diamonds from valuable diamonds. I'm thinking Harry has somewhere in the tens of millions (wholesale market value) worth of diamonds and they weren't a bunch of 35K-250K diamonds.

Agreed, but that was an example of a three carat flawless colorless diamond that I found..

Offline raidem

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #197 on: January 03, 2019, 08:40:57 PM »
Quote
Naw, I think it is much simpler than that, remember when we were kids we are told that "Santa knows who's been naughty and who's been nice..."  Kringle has a direct line, he also knows our hearts and secret wishes, he doesn't need Michael to whisper anything to Heaven..

I didn't really say that Michael had to whisper anything to Heaven.  It could be that 1) Michael hearing it alerted Uriel's phantom Grace within Michael, 2) Michael just heard from Heaven the spoiler which wouldn't otherwise have happened had he not previously worn a Grace.

And sure, I agree Kringle already had the plan in motion about the coffee cup prior to Harry even mentioning it to Michael.  I'm just arguing the case that there is some unknown, unquantified/qualified something left for Michael for having wielded Uriel's Grace.
"That's it???  It's really that simple? 
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Offline KurtinStGeorge

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #198 on: January 03, 2019, 08:42:01 PM »
I have to agree that Hades would only have the highest quality diamonds as part of his personal collection, even if they were being used in a kind of art exhibit, the flowing fountain of diamonds.

About the White Council, or Marcone or anyone (but mostly the White Council) having a cleanup crew for supernatural battles.  I find it odd that many members of the White Council don't like Harry openly advertising himself as a wizard, but if I read this Christmas eve story correctly, it's possible the White Council didn't mind having a knock down brawl in the middle of one of the largest cities in North America.  That's hardly a way to remain discrete.

As far as mortal authorities noticing what went on.  Even paying for all those funerals and the medical bills for the injured wouldn't remain hidden for long.  Sooner or later that would attract attention. 
« Last Edit: January 03, 2019, 08:56:28 PM by KurtinStGeorge »
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Offline morriswalters

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #199 on: January 03, 2019, 08:43:41 PM »
Say Valmont could carry 50 lbs.  That's 113,398 carets.  At a 1000 dollars per caret  that's 113,398,000 dollars.  Divided by 5 is 22,679,600 dollars per split.  Divide Harry's in half and you get 11,339,800.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #200 on: January 03, 2019, 09:04:31 PM »
1. Whatever they got out was divided into five boxes on the Capenter's kitchen table.  One each for everyone who got out.  Grey turns his down and Harry gives it to Marcone as a weregild. Harry gives ?/half/? of his to Murphy. So 1/8 of the total after the wergild. Check my math.  I failed arithmetic.

2. I'll give you some links which explain the tax codes for gifts for education and medical bills.  I'm stating this poorly so here's a link

3. I should tell you this is money from a criminal enterprise. Hitting the gift tax limit might be the least of their worries.  It isn't reportable income.  You can't bank it.  Cash transactions over a certain figure are automatically reported to the IRS. 

4. And your cost calculations assume selling the diamonds on the open market.  Not gonna happen in the US.  You'll need a fence, which will mean a significant discount from market. 

5. You weren't suffering under the illusion that you could just drop 20 million in a saving account and call it good?  Harry's covered by the White Council, it's one of their purposes. Valmont and Binder are criminals and know the ropes, Murphy is a cop and knows what not to do.  Do the archangels have a bank?

6. The word is that Marcone is hosting.  Ivy is attending.  I assume that Harry and Ramirez are tasked by the White Council.  And Molly is apparently in the mix somewhere.
I added the numbers for reference purposes.

1. Ok. I thought you meant he got 1/8th a box. I think he got a tenth of the score. Five boxes (1/5 the score). Marcone gets Grey's, still fifths. Harry takes half of a fifth which is 1/10th. I have no objection to my math being checked. The big complicated equations in high school were never my problem. It was all the simple math.

2. Harry can pay for just about any of his child's needs straight up. He can't just dump money in an irrevocable trust. He can front load about 70K in education expenses and pay as he goes no problem. I did forget the medical expense exemption from the gift tax. Yeah, Harry could just pay those without worrying about gift tax consequences, but it would still be better to funnel it through a 501(c)(3).

3. They stole the diamonds from a place the authorities believe is fictional. Income from a criminal enterprise is totally reportable. In fact, it is illegal to not report it. Here's a CNN article about it: https://money.cnn.com/2013/02/28/news/economy/illegal-income-tax/index.html. It's still a sticky wicket. Harry would be able to afford a good lawyer to help him do it in a way that minimizes criminal liability exposure. The figure is ten thousand (or was last time I looked). Let's say Harry can sell all the diamonds to one buyer in one go. If that buyer writes him a check, then Harry can just deposit it and pay taxes on it. Additionally, if Harry gets cash, he can store it on Demonreach and deposit large sums and say it is income from his detective business and fill out a form 8300. He can also spend large sums (less than 10K) without worrying about the forms or taxes (sort of). Technically, his largest tax law concern is that he has a massive income that he has to report in the year he received it, but he can't pay it because he wasn't paid in cash or a cash equivalent. The IRS probably has procedures for that; I don't know.

4. That's why I said "[t]hat's not taking into account any discounts if he is fencing them." We need to remember that Harry can now get just about anywhere in the world in short order because of his mother's amulet. He also has access to supernatural markets that we can only speculate about. The first thing I'd look into is selling them to the diamond cartel. I've heard they murder people, and selling them to the cartel probably violates anti-trust laws, so I'd be real careful about it.

5. Under the right circumstances he could. It would be difficult and knowing Harry, he would probably just keep the cash in Demonreach without any sophisticated laundering of it.

6. I got nothing on this one.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #201 on: January 03, 2019, 09:12:40 PM »
Also remember that the vast majority of supernatural entities -- including groups like the vampire courts, the fae, and the White Council that have money and influence -- want to keep the masquerade up. And given what Jim's said, so does the government.

So on the one side, the supernatural creatures do what they can to keep things under wraps (remember that Harry once makes a White Court vampire back off just by threatening to expose himself. ... Bad choice of words), and when they do slip up, the government steps in and cleans it up (Susan's video of Murphy shooting the loup garou mysteriously disappears and then experts come out of the woodwork to discredit it).

Harry's descriptions of human obliviousness is pretty accurate. There was a shoot out in a parking garage a couple of blocks from an apartment I lived in. Like a straight line without any buildings between me and where the shootout happened. Never heard a thing. I lived in places where there was a huge explosion that shook the all the houses in the neighborhood and lit up the sky. Everyone bought the story that it was a gas line. I'd never figure it was a wizard battle because, as Butters says about werewolves, they aren't real. I never looked into it. I could keep going. Strange things happen all the time (or are at least reported). Most people don't believe a word of it or bother to look into it.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #202 on: January 03, 2019, 09:13:47 PM »
Agreed, but that was an example of a three carat flawless colorless diamond that I found..

I figured. I'm just trying to make my reasoning as clear as I can without going into to much detail.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #203 on: January 03, 2019, 09:16:48 PM »
About the masquerade, I forgot to mention that some point after the Fomor start showing up, one character mentions that even the news (I think) is starting to realize something is going on. JB has also mentioned or intimated that at a certain point, the masquerade will come down.

Offline morriswalters

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #204 on: January 03, 2019, 10:01:25 PM »
@Bad Alias
I got that data from reddit.

Actually none of them would have problems if they were smart.  Harry could walk the ways to some offshore banking facility and call it good.  Wealthy people do it all the time.  But it would take time and require a lot of legal expertise.  And penniless detectives who start moving large dollar amounts paying medical bills are going to draw attention.  While the IRS may not care where it came from  the FBI might ask here it came from and use forfeiture laws to take it away.

Offline Mr. Death

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #205 on: January 03, 2019, 10:01:49 PM »
About the White Council, or Marcone or anyone (but mostly the White Council) having a cleanup crew for supernatural battles.  I find it odd that many members of the White Council don't like Harry openly advertising himself as a wizard, but if I read this Christmas eve story correctly, it's possible the White Council didn't mind having a knock down brawl in the middle of one of the largest cities in North America.  That's hardly a way to remain discrete.
Because fights can only happen where you choose to let that happen, and the White Council can control who attacks them, when and where, right?

It has nothing to do with what the White Council does and doesn't "mind."
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Offline RobReece

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #206 on: January 03, 2019, 10:51:25 PM »
none of the take from the bank was going on the books, Anna was going to give them a routing to have them fenced "a little at a time"  which would have reduced the overall valuation, back after SG's first release there was a fairly exhaustive discussion on Harry's take.  If I remember correctly it was generally concluded to be between 5-10 million.  As far as Harry being able to use it, I'm sure some, like the Svartelves, would take it as currency with no problem, great for Harry's tools for his gadgets. 

Offline 123Chikadee

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #207 on: January 04, 2019, 07:56:23 AM »
Hm, I know that ignoring uncomfortable things is something humans are good at and magic/monsters isn't the go-to answer for people, but if you saw say, the Incredible Hulk getting shot in a parking lot, that would cause more attention than the local gang bangers shooting each other.
What I'm trying to say is that sometimes something so big happens that people cannot ignore it or explain it away. And while all the supernatural community tries to keep things on the DL, no one can account for everything, stuff happens, and I think the Peace Talks is when stuff happens.

Offline Mira

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #208 on: January 04, 2019, 04:39:42 PM »
Hm, I know that ignoring uncomfortable things is something humans are good at and magic/monsters isn't the go-to answer for people, but if you saw say, the Incredible Hulk getting shot in a parking lot, that would cause more attention than the local gang bangers shooting each other.
What I'm trying to say is that sometimes something so big happens that people cannot ignore it or explain it away. And while all the supernatural community tries to keep things on the DL, no one can account for everything, stuff happens, and I think the Peace Talks is when stuff happens.

At least in the movies when the Hulk and Company go postal the general populous doesn't act in the aftermath like nothing ever happened... They notice, even in Time Square.. ::)

Offline 123Chikadee

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Re: Christmas Eve from JB's Twitter (no news, just fun)
« Reply #209 on: January 04, 2019, 04:45:53 PM »
Lol, exactly.