Yeah, agree with that. When you're young and doing well, you just spend it. Once you're a bit older, saving or stashing makes sense and gets a bit easier. In my twenties, everything I ever saw was spent (wasted) on boats and cars. I still spend too much on both now but luckily, I also learned to save a bit for sensible investments.

RR

P.S. I never saw the amounts of money Kramer was in contact with but I think the basic principle still applies!

The UBS was Americans with accounts in their name. You can pay a Swiss banker to put the account in their name and front it for you. Swiss law will know reveal a foreigners account to the foreigners government. But not a Swiss citizens account. Normally its done via a shell corporations registered in another safe haven. Like the Turks and Caicos. You make the Swiss citizen CEO, it also appears they own the corporation. They can then open accounts in Switzerland. The paper trail appears a Swiss citizen is the corporation and account holders. Drug dealers have been doing this for 30 years.

Ben Kramer was a VERY smart and intelligent individual wth a lot of common sense and street smarts - He was never afraid of going back in and was the cockiest individual you could ever meet. You could also look at him goofy and he would have your leg broken, he didn't fuk around. And although he spent a lot of his money on his toys and fun (personal), he never spent it recklessly and he never acted it like it would never run out. (i mean look at the cheap-ass chopper he used to try and break him out, if he spent a few more bucks, this whole story would be very different today)

If you followed his case, every once in a while they would find another $20 million here and then another $20 million there, so its tough to say how many here & there's he had/has. There are ONLY 2 people who know his financial status.

Anyways, it doesn't really matter, the only way he gets out is in a box.

Is Ben's dad Jack still alive?

Pretty good read
http://tarpley.net/online-books/geor...-war-on-drugs/

Is this about the war on Marijuana or killing somebody?

Money laundering

http://www.leagle.com/decision/19911...%20v.%20KRAMER

With all that money flying around ya think the cops boosted any??:rolleyes:

I know the Lawyers did.

A little more than that....CCE, Conspiracy, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, Murder, Trafficking, Kingpin Status and Narcotrafficker to name a few. Ben was a pioneer and if you look deep (its all public records) you will find things related to New Orleans, New York and more that will blow you away!

Well, since this is about Kramer being released it is more about the "war on drugs" since that is what got him his life sentence.

Not really, the money laundering case was about asset forfeiture and has nothing to do with his prison sentencing.

if he got out don't think it would take long to get put back in. now this whole war on drugs deal coast the tax payers billions and billions. starting to wonder if its worth the fight now pot is legal in a few states and been talked about by all states. quit wasting money and tax it.

I'll agree on the marijuana. Having property and having lived in Washington State, haven't seen mass problems with legal marijuana. The only negative is here in BC, the gangs have lost a major source of income in illegal marijuana sales. Here it might as well be legal. We have medical marijuana legal federally. Anyway, now the gangs are at war over the harder drugs trade.

Hard drugs should remain illegal. Here in Vancouver, technically all drugs are legal. We have a place drug users can use drugs under medical supervision. The area around the clinic is exempted from drug laws by the federal government. Police can't arrest or even confiscate drug users drugs. The net result, Vancouver is the number one place to live for drug addicts. Since most heroine users are unemployable, Vancouver has the highest property crime rate in North America. Hard drugs are one of the worst things man has ever created!

I'm sure they take into account total history of a person ( it is readily available) before they dismiss a harsh sentence. They weigh it all out, then decide whether to release him or not.

I agree the total history comes into play, and the escape attempt has probably done him in. But, the fact that he laundered money in the 80's is probably irrelevant now. Drug smuggling and money laundering go hand in hand.

If you noticed Ben tried to overturn his conviction in the Aronow case, unsuccessfully of course, but he wanted it removed from his record. After serving 25 plus years in prison he has learned every conviction weighs in overall, and he is paying dearly. Life/freedom is a one shot deal, this isn't a test drive.

My prediction is the U.S. will federally legalize marijuana in the next five years. With legalization all marijuana offenders will be released.

Canada just got a new prime minister, in his victory speech he said the first thing he'll do is legalize marijuana. With Canada and several U.S. states being legal. The U.S. will have little choice, it will have to legalize.

As much as I am FOR it- I think it has a long way to go! We cant even get strong Beer in OK.

This thread is great! I just read all 34 pages. From hulls, molds, different companies and the people behind them, murders and drug trafficking it's all mind boggling! It's nice to connect some of the dots here and there and get a better feeling about the history of this sport... truly amazing and I'm sure there is soooo much more we will all never know. Someone need to make a movie about all this! WOW!

Its the only option. The next president will cave in, its their only move. Nobody has the balls to make the only other move and that's enforcing federal law with federal law enforcement against the legal states. Easier to go legal.

I'm sure manslaughter will always be relevant to early release and/or parole. But, I thought we were talking about the money laundering? Which is probably irrelevant at this point.

Money laundering conviction irrelevant? Not when he can't get out, every conviction is relevant.

Did he try it again???:grinser010: It takes big stones to try and escape in a helicopter. It's hard to believe that in over 3 minutes nobody noticed a helo in a prison and tried to stop it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...cape-1.3492898

that was 3 years ago in Canada

But it was fun to watch .

how do not get away after that . id run like the dickens lol

They said on CNN their rule (or law) is for the police not to get engaged (or something like that) with a jail break. Fuked up. Wonder what the reason or data is for that and then what they do to track them down ? They did not get into that part. Maybe I'll investigate it later

Movie is being made! Can't wait.
You guys have to read Blue Thunder...gives a lot of reality to the Aronow murder and what exactly the Kramers were up to.

NOBODY knew "exactly" what Kramer was up to.

The Movie
Speedboat racing champion and multimillionaire, Ben Aronoff, leads a double life that lands him in trouble with the law and drug lords.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6749318/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_3

whats up with the cast as well as john Travolta as "ben Aronoff"?????

When was the last time Hollywood got ANYTHING right ?

If Ben is released, the first thing he may need is prostrate surgery.....

This way the movie is "based on the story" and doesnt have to be perfectly accurate. Its also less money to make. They wont have to pay any of the families for using their names. They also wont have to pay Cigarette for use of their name. I believe I read somewhere that they renamed the boats too.

He's a really good actor, however strange his personal life seems from the outside looking in.

He also kind of looks like Aronow

If the movie is a success, Cigarette will wish they were featured in it! It would surely add some lore to the brand's history for the general public.

Like in the movie ET, they approached M&M's about being in the movie, they saw "alien movie" and passed. Reeses Pieces took the role and outsold M&M's that year for the first time......oooops.

John Travolta declined "Forrest Gump" and did "Pulp Fiction" instead. Mistake or not? Maybe this will turn out to be his Oscar winner........ Yeah right!

No such thing as bad publicity, Cig should be sponsoring the movie, maybe help ensure the scenes with boats in them are correct using the right boats.

Travolta had no career going for about a decade after the Grease/Urban Cowboy/ Stayin Alive/Sat. Night Fever era was over. Pulp Fiction jump started his career again! I can remember being in the theater when he had the shirtless scene (pulp fiction) and the whole theater gasped at the pasty fat guy on screen.......he was not the skinny italian looking kid from the other movies!

You're saying pulp fiction was a poor decision?
I don't agree at all!

Pulp fiction is a classic, forest gump is just another old movie now...