Poll: Would you or wouldn't you???

[esoteric]

I'd research how I could keep it.

 

[Malevolence]

To bloody right I'd keep it. It would be straight into the smelter to break it down into smaller pieces and then a few weeks to research the best places to sell them.

 

[randomshenans]

I'd have sat on it for like 20yrs, I'd be just over 50 then and I'm sure as hell it'd be worth a ton more. Then I'd find a way to launder it

 

[DeathofRats]

Not kept it. My altruistic beneficence would be reward enough. That's also why I can't afford an overclocked Ryzen bundle.

 

[dowie]

Anyway there is a very good chance he will get the gold back legally if its legal owners can't be traced.

Unfortunately it wasn't found buried in a field, this is apparently an Iraqi tank, they invaded Kuwait - among the various places raided by Iraqi forces were the vaults of the Kuwaiti central banks... I'd suspect they'll want their gold back.

 

[CREATIVE!11]

Look my standard go to on these polls is ban.

24hrs for op.

Thank you moderation for your consideration.

 

[Angilion]

2 million would change my life, but legally what would be the ramifications of keeping it and being caught?

Stealing £2M and getting caught usually results in a long jail sentence. It would undoubtably be theft, so if you kept it the only question would be whether or not you got caught.

How would you even go about attempting to sell that without it being suspicious.

My guess would be you'd have to get involved with criminals who could deal with large sums of gold. That would probably be dangerous in itself and you might end up funding things you'd rather not be funding. Terrorism, weapons smuggling, drug smuggling, slavery. All of which involves people who wouldn't be bothered about killing you to take all of it. As well as that risk, you'd be risking attracting the attention of any police or other agency that might be investigating those people. So theft of £2M and funding serious crime, so even more jail time. Not that you'd get £2M, of course. What would you do if the person you were selling it to offered you a choice of £100,000 or a bullet in the head? They might - the only reason they'd have for not killing you is how much inconvenience it would be for them. You might get lucky and somehow make contact with a "white collar" criminal instead. No doubt there are people who are extremely rich and/or work in the financial industry who could launder gold bars in some way and who are averse to violence but not theft. A million for you, a million for them and you both have a million reasons to keep quiet about it.

But that's just part one of the problem. If you somehow manage to sell the gold without being killed or caught, what do you do with the money? The hypothetical rich person you sold it to is fine in that respect - they can hide it amongst the rest of their money. But what do you do with your share? If it changes your life, it attracts attention. If you're living well beyond your apparent income (which you'd have to be for it to change your life), that could attract attention. What answer would you have if the Inland Revenue asked you about how where the money you're spending came from and why you haven't paid tax on it?

What I'd do with it is hand it in to the police and sell the story to a newspaper. That way I get a non-trivial amount of money with no risk, the possibility of more money without risk as a payment from the legitimate owner and even the possibility of keeping the gold without risk if the owner can't be traced after reasonable attempts to find them have failed. If I had a business related to the story, like this person does, I'd be even happier with that course of action because I'd be getting a huge amount of free positive advertising for my business from the media coverage.

 

[Vonhelmet]

It's the proceeds of a war crime against another nation. Why would you keep it? You're not even stealing it from Iraq, which would at least be somewhat morally defensible, you're stealing it from Kuwait.

That's before you even get to the issue of how you move that amount of gold.

 

[Tefal]

keep it, he'll get no thanks for handing it in

Please tell me you misspelled "Tanks"?

 

[Tefal]

Stealing £2M and getting caught usually results in a long jail sentence. It would undoubtably be theft, so if you kept it the only question would be whether or not you got caught.



My guess would be you'd have to get involved with criminals who could deal with large sums of gold. That would probably be dangerous in itself and you might end up funding things you'd rather not be funding. Terrorism, weapons smuggling, drug smuggling, slavery. All of which involves people who wouldn't be bothered about killing you to take all of it. As well as that risk, you'd be risking attracting the attention of any police or other agency that might be investigating those people. So theft of £2M and funding serious crime, so even more jail time. Not that you'd get £2M, of course. What would you do if the person you were selling it to offered you a choice of £100,000 or a bullet in the head? They might - the only reason they'd have for not killing you is how much inconvenience it would be for them. You might get lucky and somehow make contact with a "white collar" criminal instead. No doubt there are people who are extremely rich and/or work in the financial industry who could launder gold bars in some way and who are averse to violence but not theft. A million for you, a million for them and you both have a million reasons to keep quiet about it.

But that's just part one of the problem. If you somehow manage to sell the gold without being killed or caught, what do you do with the money? The hypothetical rich person you sold it to is fine in that respect - they can hide it amongst the rest of their money. But what do you do with your share? If it changes your life, it attracts attention. If you're living well beyond your apparent income (which you'd have to be for it to change your life), that could attract attention. What answer would you have if the Inland Revenue asked you about how where the money you're spending came from and why you haven't paid tax on it?

What I'd do with it is hand it in to the police and sell the story to a newspaper. That way I get a non-trivial amount of money with no risk, the possibility of more money without risk as a payment from the legitimate owner and even the possibility of keeping the gold without risk if the owner can't be traced after reasonable attempts to find them have failed. If I had a business related to the story, like this person does, I'd be even happier with that course of action because I'd be getting a huge amount of free positive advertising for my business from the media coverage.

It wouldnt be that hard to start a small business/self employed sideline to launder the money through.


Pay your tax, pay your NIC and dont be silly on the expanses and you csn happily tick away the years adding it to your legit funds

 

[Kiyoshi]

I'd have kept it in case I ever lost my wedding ring fitting new fence posts in my garden, instant replacement.

 

[Narj]

Second the idea to melt it down and pour it into the earth to form nuggets.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Surely that would be better in the bathroom!?

How can a lord my gold throne over visitors when it's in the bathroom?

 

[mattyg]

I'd research how I could keep it.

From behind a decent VPN

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'd have kept it. Melted it down into golf ball sized spheres and sold them over a period of time.

they were already in bars, no need to melt them down. just needed to find someone who makes stuff from gold and sell to them. for example a gold jewellers.

also you can't sell unmarked gold. so melting down would be a big no no. you would need a dodgy dealer to buy unmarked gold, so you may as well sell it marked with kuwaiti stamps to prove it's legit.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Stealing £2M and getting caught usually results in a long jail sentence. It would undoubtably be theft, so if you kept it the only question would be whether or not you got caught.



My guess would be you'd have to get involved with criminals who could deal with large sums of gold. That would probably be dangerous in itself and you might end up funding things you'd rather not be funding. Terrorism, weapons smuggling, drug smuggling, slavery. All of which involves people who wouldn't be bothered about killing you to take all of it. As well as that risk, you'd be risking attracting the attention of any police or other agency that might be investigating those people. So theft of £2M and funding serious crime, so even more jail time. Not that you'd get £2M, of course. What would you do if the person you were selling it to offered you a choice of £100,000 or a bullet in the head? They might - the only reason they'd have for not killing you is how much inconvenience it would be for them. You might get lucky and somehow make contact with a "white collar" criminal instead. No doubt there are people who are extremely rich and/or work in the financial industry who could launder gold bars in some way and who are averse to violence but not theft. A million for you, a million for them and you both have a million reasons to keep quiet about it.

But that's just part one of the problem. If you somehow manage to sell the gold without being killed or caught, what do you do with the money? The hypothetical rich person you sold it to is fine in that respect - they can hide it amongst the rest of their money. But what do you do with your share? If it changes your life, it attracts attention. If you're living well beyond your apparent income (which you'd have to be for it to change your life), that could attract attention. What answer would you have if the Inland Revenue asked you about how where the money you're spending came from and why you haven't paid tax on it?

What I'd do with it is hand it in to the police and sell the story to a newspaper. That way I get a non-trivial amount of money with no risk, the possibility of more money without risk as a payment from the legitimate owner and even the possibility of keeping the gold without risk if the owner can't be traced after reasonable attempts to find them have failed. If I had a business related to the story, like this person does, I'd be even happier with that course of action because I'd be getting a huge amount of free positive advertising for my business from the media coverage.

you could easily spread £2 million across every gold jeweller in your nearest 2 largest cities. nobody would bat an eyelid at someone selling a brick or two of gold. the problem would be finding ones that would pay cash without you being vetted. people buy and sell gold on the black market all the time, dealing in cash. I know this for a fact too.

did the gold have kuwaiti markings on them? if so then that is where the issue would lie. also you aren't allowed to sell unmarked bars either i believe. so you would need to sell to someone who makes stuff from gold at a reduced rate. so they could melt it down and make chains, rings, etc.

also with cash in hand i reckon i could quite easily go under the radar with £2 million. i wouldn't be buying ferrari's and the like. just spend it on holidays, shopping, etc. i could also easily deposit £3000 here and there into my bank account with no issues. it's when you try to deposit huge sums at once you get audited. i'd also only be selling a bar when i needed to. i would stick all the gold in a safe place and sell a bar every 6 months or so.

go into a bookies. stick £100 in the roulette machine. bet £5 on red 2-3 times. then go up to the counter with the slip to get your "winnings out". keep the slip and deposit that £100 into your bank account saying you won it at the bookies. you have the slip to prove it too. this is a small example but there are larger options out there too.

 

[soundb0y]

Smelt it at home into smaller chunks, sell it all online for bitcoin, claim you have had the btc for years from mining. Profit

 

[Glaucus]

its easy to melt down and move in small quantities(yeah you wont get full price with out the stamp etc but its still gold and worth a lot). it would be extremely tempting to keep.
but you cant underestimate the mind being scared of being caught when actually in that circumstance.

 

[IronWarrior]

Should had kept it as someone said, he will get no thanks for finding it and that said, the guy seems loaded anyway.

 

[Tek81]

they were already in bars, no need to melt them down. just needed to find someone who makes stuff from gold and sell to them. for example a gold jewellers.

also you can't sell unmarked gold. so melting down would be a big no no. you would need a dodgy dealer to buy unmarked gold, so you may as well sell it marked with kuwaiti stamps to prove it's legit.

I know people who'd buy unmarked gold. Just a shame I don't have any.