$2.4 Million in stolen skis/gear from Aspen SkiCo, sold on Ebay

[skaredshtles]

sure, but this the ski retail/rental shop in The Aspen Ski Company, which the retail division is just one part of the company. There is food and beverage, ski operations, real estate etc. So each department should be reviewed by the powers that be.

Shit, man... the powers that be are probably too busy schmoozing to bother with mundane shit like financial review. Presumably that's what the head of the rental division would do...

[jackstraw]

sure, but this the ski retail/rental shop in The Aspen Ski Company, which the retail division is just one part of the company. There is food and beverage, ski operations, real estate etc. So each department should be reviewed by the powers that be.

Yeah, the controller and CFO would both notice those numbers if their eyes were open. Something seems more fishy here.

[SumJongGuy]

I have a friend who worked at a bank in the 80s. He all but admitted he was skimming there. Probably got away with about a thousand a week for several years. He was never convicted but did get fired over it eventually. He said they never figured out how he did it.. Other than that the dude's one of the most trustworthy and honest people I know. Apparently almost getting caught was enough for him to grow up and learn his lesson.. or was it hahahaha.

[GeoMatt]

I bought a pair of skis/demo bindings from "sportandski" on eBay last fall. Absolute smoking deal. Now I know how he was able to sell stuff so cheap. They definitely had not been skied. Skis got mounted tele for my wife, and bindings were pulled and mounted on one of my sons skis.

[Cono Este]

This should be a misdemeanor compared to what many of the wealthier Aspen residents have done.

Two weekends picking up trash.


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[iceman]

Guy's like some kind of a fuckin Robin Hood. If Robin Hood made money on that whole deal.

[Danno]

I have a friend who worked at a bank in the 80s. He all but admitted he was skimming there. Probably got away with about a thousand a week for several years. He was never convicted but did get fired over it eventually. He said they never figured out how he did it.. Other than that the dude's one of the most trustworthy and honest people I know. Apparently almost getting caught was enough for him to grow up and learn his lesson.. or was it hahahaha.

this was your friend?

[Danno]

I wonder if the feds will come in and get him for tax evasion as well? He clearly was not declaring that $2.2 mill.

from the article:

Tax documents found on ASC servers indicated the couple reported $495,000 in sales in 2017.

So maybe he was.

[riser4]

I bought a pair of skis/demo bindings from "sportandski" on eBay last fall. Absolute smoking deal. Now I know how he was able to sell stuff so cheap. They definitely had not been skied. Skis got mounted tele for my wife, and bindings were pulled and mounted on one of my sons skis.

Receiving stolen property.

[neufox47]

This is what really blows my mind. Having run a number of shops, quarterly inventory is key to your bottom line, and pretty basic. You match up what is in inventory vs what is on hand. When you have major deficits, that raises red flags. I understand he ran the show, but there were people above him who should have been looking at the numbers. When you are short 170 pairs of skis at year end you have a major problem. Shrinkage of that level does not exist in the ski industry. That is theft.

And didnt the ski co have a firm that would come in and do a year end audit?

Have you seen what auditors charge these days? You can let him steal a pair for every hour they work and practically break even .

[MiddleOfNight]

You dont know the half of it.
...
I wonder if the feds will come in and get him for tax evasion as well?

fair points.

This should be a misdemeanor compared to what many of the wealthier Aspen residents have done.
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good point, and well argued.

I mean, that one family was part of the college admissions scam, and the other family was having parties and getting high school kids ripped on cocaine ...

so .... man it's real weird down there.

[doebedoe]

Receiving stolen property.

To be convicted of that requires that you knew it was stolen.

They aren't going to prove that the 10k+ people who bought skis from what looked like a legit shop on eBay all know they were stolen goods.

[iceman]

Did he actually get $2.4MM in sales on ebay or is he being charged for the full-boat retail value of everything Aspen has ever had stolen or somewhere in between? I bet he didn't put $2.4 in his pocket.

[iceman]

huh well that answers that. I'm sure he had some expenses but still.

[booner]

That's probably 300-350 full setups a year gone missing from inventory. Jeesas

[Benny Profane]

huh well that answers that. I'm sure he had some expenses but still.

If only he could have figured out free shipping.

[riser4]

To be convicted of that requires that you knew it was stolen.

They aren't going to prove that the 10k+ people who bought skis from what looked like a legit shop on eBay all know they were stolen goods.

Duh

[ill-advised strategy]

I bought a pair of skis/demo bindings from "sportandski" on eBay last fall. Absolute smoking deal. Now I know how he was able to sell stuff so cheap. They definitely had not been skied. Skis got mounted tele for my wife, and bindings were pulled and mounted on one of my sons skis.

Receiving stolen propertah!!!
Dog the Bounty Hunter is outside your house right now brah,
You gonna git pepper sprayed
Hands up don’t shoot!

[dunfree]

If only he could have figured out free shipping.

I'm kinda surprised that he wasn't charging shipping to the SkiCo too. Maybe he thought they notice that but not $60k in boxes?

[ill-advised strategy]

geomatt, did he add shipping to the price or cover it?

DON'T ANSWER IT!

LAWYER UP!

[schindlerpiste]

He could be charged with a violation of the RICO Act, Interstate Commerce, Wire Fraud, Money Laundering and Racketeering. 18 U.S.C. § 1961.

[Woodsy]

This is what really blows my mind. Having run a number of shops, quarterly inventory is key to your bottom line, and pretty basic. You match up what is in inventory vs what is on hand. When you have major deficits, that raises red flags. I understand he ran the show, but there were people above him who should have been looking at the numbers. When you are short 170 pairs of skis at year end you have a major problem. Shrinkage of that level does not exist in the ski industry. That is theft.

And didnt the ski co have a firm that would come in and do a year end audit?

So fro m reading it seems he over ordered.

He likely inventoried the skis he actually set up as demos and matched it at end of the year, so his shop wouldn't be too obvious. It was the orders ( and a demo order from Ski Co should be huge) that was where the shortfall was. Yes should have been noticed but likely written off as breakage for years. Playing dumb of " I dont know thats what I got"

and yeah, knowing Ruedi, the boat didnt seem off to me.

[fastfred]

I'm sure all the numbers are overstated right now, cops and da's like to bump them as high as they can to get better charges, when it's all said and done the numbers will be half of that

ski town life is small town living at it's best with millions of dollars floating around, your whole key to success is to reach out and grab some whenever you can however you can
the number of contractor fraud cases, theft, 1031 accounts that get raided, hoa's that get stolen from, equipment that gets stolen, it's endless, but since everyone is connected to each other some how, you want to be careful who you point a finger at, because you need make sure your shit is clean too, which is not always the case

everyone is cool in ski towns and a nice guy, so why would you suspect anything?

[ill-advised strategy]

my best ski-town hustle:

Living in a huge rental house in the offseason by paying the manager $200/mo cash, while I was getting a class-action payout from the phone company because they wouldn't provide service to another address so they agreed to pay roughly $200/mo to anyone who applied for phone service to one of the under-served addresses. I can't remember the details, honestly, but the checks kept coming every month.

Rent covered, I then sublet rooms and ate restaurant food and rode motorcycles, living it up.
Whole thing wobbled and tomahawked hard when that property manager quit and abruptly left town and his replacement came to inspect his "vacant' property full of us and our stuff. It was a scramble during fire season....had to find homes for a bunch of motorcycles, a dogsitter, a storage unit. I lost a Subaru and a motorcycle in that whole thing by way of people "hanging onto" them and never returning. It wasn't the kind of situation where I was going to go and report theft, and Taos is so loosey goosey somehow they just drove that shit around indefinitely with no title and who knows what license plates.

Hustling
fastfred is right though, it's endemic to the ski town culture...you have a population of people who were restless and determined enough to go chase a dream, trying to make shit happen.

[ACH]

my best ski-town hustle:

Heh... This reminds me of the Shot 10 bathroom chalet at Alpental. Area employees (I think) got creative one season and created a living space up in the rafters of the restroom building.