Quote:
Originally Posted by GP_Matt
I am pretty sure that the title of Canada's best thief goes to Paul Champagne. Not only does he have a great name for a villain but he stole more than $100 million from the government, convinced his wife that he was just a great investor and managed to get HP to pay the government back the money that he stole. They didn't catch him either, he turned himself in when it started to look like the people he tricked were going to be charged in his place.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/02/champagne-wishes/
The link is to a really great article. A must read for anyone who balks at the claims that governments can save money by cutting fat and becoming more efficient. |
No kidding.
It seems like there were two parts to this. He saved the gov't a ton of money by only paying to fix things that were broken instead of buying extended warranties. Sounds like low lying fruit to me.
The second was that he was able to steal money because bureaucrats wanted to shovel it out the door as fast as they could so they didn't loose the budget next year. He helped them do that, and helped himself to some of the money. Some of the money they're desperately trying to spend is probably wasted non-fraudulently. Might be a chance to save some money there.