Copyright jalopnik
Florida Man! Do your antics know no bounds? Fresh from ramming into a garbage truck and crashing through a BMW showroom, now Florida Man is accused of raising millions in capital to buy Boeing 737s, then pocketing it for himself. The Floridian in question this time around is Joshua Wander, an investor in budget airlines Flair and Bonza. He told his lenders that he was going to buy 134 of the 737 MAX model, but he only ended up getting 38. The money that would have been spent for the others somehow — who can say? — ended up in his personal bank account and that of his business partner. Wander calls this "a business dispute." Prosecutors calls it "wire fraud." As the Seattle Times reports, Wander's company, 777 Partners (no relation to the Boeing 777), allegedly raised a grand total of $500 million by nefarious means. That number may sound large, but it makes more sense when you realize that Wander was using the very cutting edge in manipulative technology (literally Microsoft Paint). With altered documents declaring assets that didn't actually exist, Wander borrowed money against collateral that wasn't there. Obviously, if true, the scheme stiffs the lenders. But it would also stiff Boeing, who would have to scratch a bunch of future orders it thought it had off its books.
