Alex Yrigoyen & The Leelah Project

[Rabbit Bones]

This has to be illegal somehow

 

[AnOminous]

This has to be illegal somehow

Stealing money usually is.

 

[Dalish]

This has to be illegal somehow

the thing that's difficult is that alexis never registered as a charity organization or any sort of not for profit. though she took funds under false pretenses, i would suspect that any action would have to be a civil lawsuit with people who donated to her suing for refunds.

perhaps @Saul Goodman or any other kiwi lawyers might have a better idea.

incidentally, the person who had initially partnered with alexis admits that they don't know for sure that the money is still there, but assures us that alexis will be making a post soon.

 

[DrJonesHat]

Maybe @Saul Goodman or @AnOminous can weigh in, but since she didn't set up a non-profit to receive the funds, I think she's on the hook for taxes, and that's on top of whatever charges might come for soliciting funds under false pretenses. She may or may not make a post. Also, that money has probably been drained out of the Paypal account and gone to finance her lifestyle.

EDIT: She should have just found a sugar daddy. She's attractive enough to land a paying boyfriend.

 

[AnOminous]

Maybe @Saul Goodman or @AnOminous can weigh in, but since she didn't set up a non-profit to receive the funds, I think she's on the hook for taxes, and that's on top of whatever charges might come for soliciting funds under false pretenses.

It might not be "income" if it actually wasn't kept but went to someone else and was therefore never actually possessed by the person collecting it, and the sometimes confusing issues with this is why it's usually a good idea to set up some kind of legal entity to collect money like this.

But those don't apply since whatever-it-is just apparently outright stole the money. So it would be taxable income if kept. Not sure about how the taxes would be handled if the money was stolen in one tax year then forced to be given back the next, or if stolen and spent in one tax year (being income for that year) but then later paid back as court ordered restitution. Might be a deduction or an offset of some sort.

Anyway, not my problem! But whoever this is is going to need a good criminal lawyer and a good accountant, and probably won't get either.

 

[Dalish]

Thanks for the info, @AnOminous

Good news, everybody!

Here is a handy dandy masterpost to the Leelah Project debacle.

 

[Splendid]

It might not be "income" if it actually wasn't kept but went to someone else and was therefore never actually possessed by the person collecting it, and the sometimes confusing issues with this is why it's usually a good idea to set up some kind of legal entity to collect money like this.

But those don't apply since whatever-it-is just apparently outright stole the money. So it would be taxable income if kept. Not sure about how the taxes would be handled if the money was stolen in one tax year then forced to be given back the next, or if stolen and spent in one tax year (being income for that year) but then later paid back as court ordered restitution. Might be a deduction or an offset of some sort.

Anyway, not my problem! But whoever this is is going to need a good criminal lawyer and a good accountant, and probably won't get either.

You're assuming that they'll ever have to answer for this, and people seem to get away with these internet charity scams all the time.

 

[AnOminous]

You're assuming that they'll ever have to answer for this, and people seem to get away with these internet charity scams all the time.

So if that happens, anyone with concrete information that could be used by the IRS should rat them out. There's even a special form for it and a finder's fee.

Slight caveat in that I suspect reporting such things might slightly increase your own chance of being audited somehow, but I have no solid basis for such a suspicion.

 

[dorkin44]

Why haven't I heard about this before? This is absolutely sickening. Honestly, the crap with pretending to be 1/64th Cherokee or Aztec or whatever the fuck is child's play, how the hell does someone who isn't a completely soulless psychopathic monster build an embezzling scheme surrounding someone's suicide? Like how does that thought even go through a human being's head?

 

[DrJonesHat]

Why haven't I heard about this before? This is absolutely sickening. Honestly, the crap with pretending to be 1/64th Cherokee or Aztec or whatever the fuck is child's play, how the hell does someone who isn't a completely soulless psychopathic monster build an embezzling scheme surrounding someone's suicide? Like how does that thought even go through a human being's head?

Sociopathy is certainly an explanation, but so's acute drug addiction. The former is untreatable, the latter is treatable assuming the addict wants to get better.

I really hope this gets reported, stealing money via someone's suicide is despicable.
I'm really confused. Is she a ciswoman and just jumped on the trans bandwagon, or is she doing a really good job of passing (while simultaneously being a horrible person)?

 

[Rabbit Bones]

She's claiming to be trans, but I imagine she's just a normal old cis woman jumping on the transtender train.

 

[Vitriol]

Its late and I can't sleep, have some badly written legal sperging about this:

Spoiler: Embezzlement

i can't speak for the US but in scotland this is textbook embezzlement and as good an example of that niche crime as any I can think of.

the oversimplified definition is embezzlement is to 'fraudulantly appropriate for his own uses and purposes property entrusted to him' some analogue of this can be found in most legal systems.

A lot of 'tucute' patreons, donate buttons etc and fit this description- if someone isn't transgender and they are asking for donations on the basis of their 'oppressed minority' status this is embezzlement.

I won't go deep into the details because the distinction between theft and embezzlement comes from a desire in the Victorian period to distinguish between the capital offence of theft and the non capital offence of embezzlement and gets very complicated. To condense a century worth of mental gymnastics: the elites did not like the thought of being executed like a common thief when caught stealing so the separate crime of embellishment was distinguished as a crime for punishing people for stealing money in ways that were more common to the middle and upper classes. Essentially they just combined fraud and theft, got rid of the then capital punishment and then wrote long elaborate essays on why it was totally different when rich people did it. Considering tumblr is full of rich middle class kids its not surprising at all that a crime created specifically to describe the kind of theft common to that group is occurring.

thankfully most modern legal systems treat embezzlement as theft aggravated by fraud (in scotland there is now a statute specifically allowing the offences to be used interchangeably).

I mention all this because as far as I'm aware the same thing happened throughout the common law world at the time and had the effect of making lying for donations that are then spent on oneself a very illegal act throughout most of the world. its not just theft or fraud but an aggravated bastard of both and thats before we get into the issues regarding not registering as a charity or the tax issues. despite their origin as a privilege of the rich modern embezzlement cases tend to lead to heavy sentences.

I doubt anything will come of this as $15000 is small fry in the world of embezzlement but if someone or somethread was to compile a dossier of the debacle and forward it onto the relevant authorities you never know.

the thing about the kind of people that deal with embezzlement and the like is they tend to be a very particular sort of person and tumblr likely won't be on most of their radars yet but eventually it will be and tumblr is in for a shock when it does. Once they start watching a group they never stop as numerous OPLCA gurus have found out to their cost. I know they now watch youtube to find more OPLCA types if they get wind of tumblr those shoplifting blogs will likely begin to drop off aswell.

i'll correct grammar etc in the morning.

 

[DirkBloodStormKing]

I know this is tumblr and I should have expected someone like this to exist on there, but still, I'm fucking disgusted with what Alex did. This is beyond thievery. This is selfishness. This is taking advantage of the suicide of a child that went through so much awful stuff (including rejection from her own parents and conversion therapy) and using the same struggle of so many LGBT youth for her own selfish desires. Whether she's some kind of addict, a sociopath, or just an awful, AWFUL person is debateable, but regardless, I'm legitimately sickened either way.

 

[AnOminous]

the oversimplified definition is embezzlement is to 'fraudulantly appropriate for his own uses and purposes property entrusted to him' some analogue of this can be found in most legal systems.

Slight disagreement in that embezzlement generally requires the person embezzling to be properly in charge of the funds to begin with. Of course, I'm operating on the assumption this person was a swindler from the outset, making the matter a simple fraud. However, I suppose if they went into this with good intent and only later decided to rip off the donors, it would be embezzlement.

 

[Trombonista]

Another cis woman exploiting the struggles of trans women for personal gain. She should be friends with Kat.

 

[Meowthkip]

I saw some posts on my dash about a user named zubat, and that they did something bad and this should not be used as an excuse to hate on non-binary and "white-passing latinx" people.

Now knowing the context I'm disgusted that some people's first thought in reaction to this was to cover their own asses.

 

[Vitriol]

Slight disagreement in that embezzlement generally requires the person embezzling to be properly in charge of the funds to begin with. Of course, I'm operating on the assumption this person was a swindler from the outset, making the matter a simple fraud. However, I suppose if they went into this with good intent and only later decided to rip off the donors, it would be embezzlement.

Thats interesting, in Scotland its enough just to deceive people into giving you money.

You know more about US law than i do so i dont dispute you're correct.

 

[AnOminous]

Thats interesting, in Scotland its enough just to deceive people into giving you money.

You know more about US law than i do so i dont dispute you're correct.

Many kinds of fraud would also be embezzlement, and it might be easier to prove than fraud, especially if you can't prove that it was intended as a ripoff from the outset. I personally believe that, but I'm not sure it could be proven.

 

[Inquisitor_BadAss]

She's claiming to be trans, but I imagine she's just a normal old cis woman jumping on the transtender train.

Agreed. I don't see the scam working on tumblr working without some kind of tags attached.

 

[Dalish]

Alex has posted a response with terrible math and an admittance of there still being a balance to the account even though TLP was closed due to lack of funds

Don't go to her blog unless you use donotlink. She put it under a read more to rake in adsense bucks.