Recycling too much is now a federal crime.
A California family of eight has been federally charged for
the grave, grave offense of recycling fraud.
And let's get into some of these absurd details from Yahoo News.
In a felony complaint filed this month,
california prosecutors charged eight family members in Riverside, California
with defrauding the state by importing used bottles and cans from Arizona.
Some 178 tons in eight months, and recycling them in California.
So we have a photo of some of these highly illegal goods here,
that contraband [LAUGH] as you can see, squished cans.
The family made approximately $7.6 million.
Apparently, it pays to recycle.
Here's a photo of the money that was confiscated from them.
[LAUGH] So funny to know.
To see that, you expect it's a big time drug bust.
They busted cans.
Now [LAUGH] investigators also found a stash of, as they put it, illegally
imported beverage containers that would have been worth another million dollars.
So I think the question here is why the hell is this illegal?
Well, apparently it's because they got the trash from Arizona and
then brought it over to California from Yahoo News.
When someone purchases a plastic or aluminum bottle in California,
they typically pay an extra 5 to $0.10 in California redemption value or CRV.
Which the consumer can get back by returning the items to one of the state's
more than 1,200 recycling centers.
Arizona has no such program.
Now, California's Attorney General Rob Bonta stated on the record about
this fraud, California's recycling program is funded by consumers and
helps protect our environment and our communities.
Those who try to undermine its integrity through criminal operations will be held
accountable.
And this quote really makes me laugh as if the activities of people
in Arizona doesn't affect the climate of people in California as
if people not recycling in Arizona, it's just concealed to the state.
The climate impact will not move over to California.
It's such a goofy statement, but
let's continue on to what it comes to with the actual criminal complaint.
In the criminal complaint, prosecutors accused family members of unlawfully
conspiring to commit grand theft cans, I'm sorry, plastic bottles and cans.
And defrauding the California recycling program on a chronic and
ongoing basis by seeking reimbursement for out-of-state containers and
containers that had already been redeemed within California.
And, of course, felony grand theft in California is punishable by up to
three years in state prison.
Now, between 2010 and 2019, only 93 people have been convicted of recycling fraud.
According to a consumer watchdog report, there are several tactics for
fraud, and the common recycling fraud tactics are as follows.
Importing non-CRV containers from out of state, weighing the same truck repeatedly,
falsely reporting the source of containers to obtain higher payment.
Recycling the same container repeatedly, false documentation of phantom containers.
Padding the load with non-CRV containers,
doctoring weight tickets, mislabeling scrap as CRV.
And reminder, you can recycle, but not too much.
Otherwise, you might be charged federally for fraud.
And Cenk, some of those things on that list I can get behind, right?
Counting the same container twice,
padding the weight load of the things that you're recycling.
I mean, in the back of my head, all I can think of is that scene in that
episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman are trying to recycle cans for
money and they just fill [LAUGH] the mail truck with cans.
But I mean, other than that, bringing cans over from another state,
it helps everyone.
Those cans might not have been recycled in Arizona.
They're getting recycled in California.
What is the actual complaint here?
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, so first,
let me summarize my point of view on this story by saying, let them go, let them go!
>> [LAUGH] >> Okay, so Rayyvana is 100% right.
If I thought they were doing fraud where they're double counting the cans or
trying to rip off the taxpayers, no, prosecute the hell out of them, right?
But they brought it from Arizona.
Well, you're still recycling.
That's still a good thing.
Look, maybe it's technically a violation, but
that's what we're gonna spend prosecutor time on?
Now, let me give you the context, cuz if you just see that case, you might go,
well, that doesn't seem like a big deal, but I guess it is a crime.
But wait a minute, you wanna talk about white collar crime.
Bank of America just got a massive fine, but not massive enough,
by the way, because they were literally robbing their own customers.
They were double charging them.
They were creating accounts that no one asked for,
taking money out of people's accounts and putting in their pockets.
I mean, look, I interviewed somebody about a decade ago that had written a book, and
he used to be part of the Federal Reserve System.
And the name of the book was Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own a Bank, okay?
And so that's what Bank of America was doing.
It was a literal bank robbery.
No one got charged.
They got fined a small portion of their profits.
I don't know what their profits from that particular scheme was and
what the percentage are, but it was just a fine.
They didn't even propose a criminal sentence to any of the executives cuz
that's a beloved giant corporation.
Giant corporations get away with anything.
Small business, real people, you're gonna get crushed like one of those cans.
But guys, the Bank of America example is just a recent one.
I can give you thousands of those examples.
One of the most legendary ones is Rick Scott.
He's currently a senator from Florida.
The company that he was CEO of did the largest Medicare fraud in
American history.
They paid a fine that was in the billions, and they admitted they did it.
And they kept two separate books, so
they knew exactly what they were doing, 100% crooks.
Not only was Rick Scott not charged, no one was charged.
And then on top of that, they gave Rick Scott $300 million.
I write about him in my book, Justice is Coming.
You can get it at tyt.com/justice.
But they gave him award of $300 million for doing a robbery well.
So they never charged these white collar criminals in the most outrageous cases.
But a couple of small business owners from Riverside brought in cans from Arizona,
and now they're gonna get charged.
Nah, that's crazy.
>> Speaker 3: Well, you know, those people from Riverside, they aren't,
like you pointed out, beloved corporate donors.
They're not the ones who keep everybody's pockets greased and
the revolving door revolving.
That's the only difference.
And anytime you see stuff like this, as both of you pointed out,
you would think like, okay, does the government want its taxes?
Cuz that's typically issues with anything along the lines of fraud.
Are you paying your taxes?
Which, again, can be understandable.
But at the end of the day, things like the IRS being gutted, employees
being cut is so that international corporations can't be gone after.
So that the richest and the wealthiest among us can continue to hide their money
offshores, can continue to beat around the bush with all the loopholes that exist.
So it's been set up this way.
And at the end of the day,
they're just going after people who are easy to go after.
I remember, I mean, it's completely unrelated, but
think about how many people maybe get pulled over.
Maybe you were speeding, and
then you end up getting a DUI even though you didn't blow anything.
You blew a 0.0.
People get DUIs.
That happened to me, you know what I'm saying?
Luckily, I could afford a lawyer.
But it's just the predatory law enforcement system going after easy
targets.
This isn't unique to America.
It's just the nature of corruption.
And as you point out all the time, Cenk, we gotta get money out of the system.
Otherwise, this type of stuff simply won't change.
>> Speaker 2: That's a great analogy, Jackson,
because I remember we interviewed a Baltimore cop, again, a long time ago, and
he said, why do you think we target the black communities?
And by the way, if you think we don't target the black communities,
that's hilarious.
Of course, we do.
He's like, because even if you're assigned to a rich white area, well,
you don't wanna meet your quota of arrest there.
Cuz then you can get in trouble cuz you arrest the wrong person,
turns out to be a judge's son.
And now all of a sudden, you got problems, right?
Whereas in the areas in Baltimore that are poorer, you arrest people all day long.
They got no power, so it's easy to beat up on them.
And so in this case, you got a small business owner, easy to beat up on them.
So look, I'm not here to defend these guys.
I don't know them from Adam,
and let them prove their case in court if they can, the prosecutors, right?
But California prosecutors, did any of you go after Bank of America?
My guess is you will say, well, I mean,
I couldn't because there was the federal guys and then they made a deal and
there was a plea deal, and so we didn't arrest anyone.
Yeah, of course, you never arrest anyone from the major corporations, never.
I mean, OxyContin killed how many people?
Tens of thousands of people, any arrests?
No, they were literal drug dealers, any arrests?
No, nothing, nothing.
Look, guys, the media tells you this mythology that
the people up top have succeeded in a meritocracy.
So they have merited it.
They are great men.
They are the titans of industry.
They are the ones you should look up to.
Unfortunately, not every time, but a lot of times.
That is the exact opposite of the truth.
Unfortunately, a lot of times, those guys are the biggest crooks in America.
And prosecutors pretending to do their job,
go beat up on small people with no power at all when they let
the biggest crooks in America off the hook for free all the time.