http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle/

Like most contractors, Custer Battles was on a cost-plus arrangement, which means its profits were guaranteed to rise with its spending. But according to testimony by officials and former employees, the partners also charged the government millions by making out phony invoices to shell companies they controlled. In another stroke of genius, they found a bunch of abandoned Iraqi Airways forklifts on airport property, repainted them to disguise the company markings and billed them to U.S. tax­payers as new equipment. Every time they scratched their asses, they earned; there was so much money around for contractors, officials literally used $100,000 wads of cash as toys. "Yes -- $100 bills in plastic wrap," Frank Willis, a former CPA official, acknowledged in Senate testimony about Custer Battles. "We played football with the plastic-wrapped bricks for a little while."

The Custer Battles show only ended when the pair left a spreadsheet behind after a meeting with CPA officials -- a spreadsheet that scrupulously detailed the pair's phony invoicing. "It was the worst case of fraud I've ever seen, hands down," says Grayson. "But it's also got to be the first instance in history of a defendant leaving behind a spreadsheet full of evidence of the crime."

But even being the clumsiest war profit­eers of all time was not enough to bring swift justice upon the heads of Mr. Custer and Mr. Battles -- and this is where the story of America's reconstruction effort gets really interesting. The Bush administration not only refused to prosecute the pair -- it actually tried to stop a lawsuit filed against the contractors by whistle-blowers hoping to recover the stolen money. The administration argued that Custer Battles could not be found guilty of defrauding the U.S. government because the CPA was not part of the U.S. government. When the lawsuit went forward despite the administration's objections, Custer and Battles mounted a defense that recalled Nuremberg and Lt. Calley, arguing that they could not be guilty of theft since it was done with the government's approval.

Agree'd with T-man, any sort of clamp truck (carton, barrel, pulp bale...) is much more of an innovation than a sideways moving forklift. Thats for lazy people.


Interesting to watch

Hot damn, it can clear 1" of wood!
Seriously though, that looks pretty neat. Make it faster, take off the forklift, add 4 wheels to the roof, set me loose in a circular cage, and I'm good to go!

call it viral if you want, but I doubt anyone if going to buy a forklift.

I guess this works by having those angled bowling pin shaped thingys spinning forward or backwards as the whole wheel rotates.

" ...using 10 times the juice a car would,..."

That statement is utterly stupid. Your forklift doesn't have to go faster then a brisk walk on mostly flat surfaces, and the hydraulics use very little power. There are so many differences between the two, that it is less then worthless as a comparison.

Meanwhile I drive my 1988 stand-up forklift at work for 18 hours on one charge running,lifting,constantly moving, using 10 times the juice a car would, and it takes just over 1 hour to fully recharge.

Anyone who thinks they don't have the tech to make an affordable car that runs for days on one charge is simply an idiot. They've had the technology for 20 years now.

I think the quote from the prince/halftime-show scam was "The psychology of the cat and mouse is this: The cat doesn't expect the mouse to come up to it and ask if it can use the forklift. They just don't do that."

I'd guess that the hot dog guy is used to small-time quick scams like that, so is more watchful. The guy that sold the ring? Did he ever even think that a guy would just walk up and hand him paper to pay for something? I'd highly doubt it, as that just isn't supposed to happen!

Sigh... when will people learn that security is about being vigilant, even in the areas you think should be safe, as that's where people will target...

Tags changed from "training, german, hilarious" to "stapler, fahrer, klaus,forklift, safety" by gold star member plastiquemonkey.

did you work with forklifts?

be careful...