The theives who pulled off the legendary Lufthansa Cargo heist at JFK in the late '70s netted about $6 Million.
Theives in Bangkok who recently knocked over the (not so permanent anymore) Permanent Transport Secretary's house have reportedly confessed to walking out with 200 million baht in cash. That's about $6.5 Million at today's exchange rates.
Granted, $6 Mill in the seventies was worth a lot more than $6 Mill today. But the only reason the theives didn't take more was that they couldn't carry it all! The gang ringleader claims to have found between 700 million and one Billion baht at the Secretary's house. That's between $23 and $35 Million, give or take.
Now, as we all know, the highest-denomination banknote in Thailand is 1000 baht. Worth about $33 today. And it's physically a little bigger than the hundred-dollar bill. So a million dollars' in cash in baht is physically a whole lot larger than a million dollars in hundred-dollar bills. Just sayin'.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into the Secretary's unusual wealth. And banking habits.
Bangkok post article.
Perhaps the best evidence of the Secretary's innocence of corruption is what he did after discovering he'd been robbed: he called the police. I mean, if I were a corrupt bureaucrat sitting on $25 million in cash who'd been robbed of $6 Million, I'd let the six go, gather up the rest, pay some overweight baggage charges, hop the next TG to ZRH, and make a deposit at one of those little private banks on Banhofstrasse. I wouldn't be ringing the police, that's for sure.