Was looking through that Cuban cigar website and here is a story that I thought you guys might find interesting and funny.
[Quote] An interesting and humorous free cigar story - Author Unknown
This is a true story and was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Darwin Award Contest. A Charlotte NC man, having purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these fine cigars and without yet having made his first premium payment on the insurance policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim the man stated that the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires”.
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: that the man had consumed the cigars in normal fashion. The man sued and won! In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated that - nevertheless - the man held a policy with the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be “unacceptable fire,” and was therefore obligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the man for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the “fires”.
Now for the best part. After the man cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.
That’s what I call poetic justice!! [/Quote]
From the site
In reality:
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/alerts/cuban_cigars.xml
Obviously I think it’s a stupid rule, but it’s of note to see what both sides are saying. On one hand, Customs could be letting this practice slide. On the other hand, the site could be bogus. Just passing along information, I honestly don’t know either way.
You’re right. The Cuban buying site is wrong. If the feds wanted to, they could prosecute.
But its like for many online gambling sites. Many state attorneys could attempt to go after users of the site, but its not worth the hassle.
The website is right, though, that personally bringing contraband over the border is not the brightest thing to do. The dog is pretty common at immigration. A dog pointed me out in Philadelphia for one Cohiba (not Cuban) in two ziploc bags and a humidity card, and the officer searched me and looked at the one cigar until he was satisfied it was not Cuban.
That dog was able to sniff one apple in a woman’s purse…I wish I knew what dog that was, almost looked like a toy beagle.
[QUOTE=cakewalk5;156809]You’re right. The Cuban buying site is wrong. If the feds wanted to, they could prosecute.
But its like for many online gambling sites. Many state attorneys could attempt to go after users of the site, but [U]its not worth the hassle[/U].
The website is right, though, that personally bringing contraband over the border is not the brightest thing to do. The dog is pretty common at immigration. A dog pointed me out in Philadelphia for one Cohiba (not Cuban) in two ziploc bags and a humidity card, and the officer searched me and looked at the one cigar until he was satisfied it was not Cuban.
That dog was able to sniff one apple in a woman’s purse…I wish I knew what dog that was, almost looked like a toy beagle.[/QUOTE]
They can’t prosecute these online gambling sites, because they are offshore gambling sites. They operate in a country where gambling is leagl. With this site though, they may do the same, but I would think if they shipped them to you in the U.S. then that would be illegal.
I heard that I might know someone.
Obviously just kidding, all law enforcement people.
They can't prosecute these online gambling sites, because they are offshore gambling sites. They operate in a country where gambling is leagl. With this site though, they may do the same, but I would think if they shipped them to you in the U.S. then that would be illegal.
The state can prosecute the user, who is in the state. Thus, if the state had probable cause, they could confiscate a user’s computer, search it for evidence, and prosecute if they wished. Now it probably will never happen, but it could.
Plus, many states want federal courts to hold that a website’s American URL (.com is distributed from Northern Virginia) and its advertising is sufficient contact with a state in order to avail the company to the state’s law. Obviously, this is questionable if it will ever hold in this circumstance, but some state’s do believe they have a plausible argument for bringing off-shore companies to court.