In Dickens’s Oliver Twist (serialized 1837–39) the Artful Dodger is a precocious streetwise boy who introduces the protagonist Oliver to the thief Fagin and his gang of children, who work as thieves and pickpockets. Today the Artful Dodger still roams the streets In February 2022 there were 562 juvenile children in Britain in custody. Crime is sometimes the only way of life and the only education. The word Artful implies cunning and clever using great skill and not in the sense with canvass , paint and brush.
The young of this world can be very resourceful and in the recent FTX scandal we see a young man in shorts who sleeps on beanbags having just misappropriated circa $8 billion in what may prove to be the biggest fraud in history. It’s hip to be young and successful and many of the most experienced can fall for the phenomenon.
Guenther Lehmann, who made his son a billionaire at 18. This was through a stake transfer in the German drugstore chain Drogerie Markt to Kevin when he was 14.Ok there’s nothing artful with inheritance but with the wealth comes huge responsibility. Fortunes made by one Generation can be easily lost by the next of the artful when dreadful.
In 2005 Jagmeet Channa at 25 pulled off the biggest crime in British history in terms of the amount of cash stolen – more than 27 times that taken during the Great Train Robbery in 1963 and almost £20m more than the used notes stolen in 2006 during an armed raid on a Kent cash depot. His artful dodge at HSBC was later found and he ended up in prison for 9 years.
The young of the old crime world could slip through narrow holes or scale drainpipes quickly. They could run away fast and not be caught by the Peelers, Coppers or whatever the Police were called in those days. Now they can operate online and off air, they no longer loiter the streets but can end up on the phone in your pocket via text or any other digital communication. The Artful Dodger is near. Be careful.
qbitblogger 