Saturday, April 18, 2009

Huge manhunt over $40 million Army fuel theft

There are many ways to profit from the energy markets. Of course different plays have different risk metrics. From MSNBC:
A former U.S. Army contractor convicted of stealing $40 million worth of fuel from a military base in Iraq is helping authorities in a global search for other suspects in the case, according to court records.

One suspect has already been arrested in the Philippines and now awaits indictment from a federal grand jury in Virginia....

...The thefts occurred in 2007 and 2008 from Camp Liberty in Baghdad. Dubois admitted that he and others stole more than 10 million gallons of jet fuel and diesel fuel from the base. They used fraudulent paperwork so that fuel trucks could drive in and withdraw tens of thousands of gallons a day....MORE

As we said in '07's "Magical Markets, Enron and GE and a New Word":
...Now don't get me wrong, risk is good. Risk allows you to die with a garage full of stuff. Like a helicopter. In the garage. On your yacht. There was one with a 3000 square foot master suite offered on ebay last year for $168 million....

...Andy Fastow of Enron fame said "I can strip out any risk"; well maybe, how'd you hedge the risk of doing six years hard time?...