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Time Business News
26-04-2025
- Time Business News
Amicus International Consulting Unpacks the Legality of Faking Your Death and Offers Safer, Legal Alternatives in 2025
VANCOUVER, B.C. – In today's hyper-connected world, where every transaction, travel movement, and phone ping can be traced, the idea of vanishing completely—of faking one's death—continues to hold a strange allure. But is pseudocide legal? And is it worth the risk? Amicus International Consulting, a globally recognized authority in legal identity transformation and privacy protection, has released a groundbreaking report answering the question: 'Is it legal to fake your death in 2025?' The report dives deep into what pseudocide entails, the legal landmines it triggers, and what safer, legitimate paths exist for those seeking a true escape or a fresh start. Understanding Pseudocide: What It Means Pseudocide, the act of faking your death, is not explicitly illegal under federal law in many countries, including the U.S. and Canada. However, the steps required to successfully carry out a faked death almost always involve breaking the law. These acts include: Insurance fraud Identity theft Filing false police reports Forging public documents Tax evasion Immigration fraud 'Pseudocide isn't technically a crime,' said James Quiggle, spokesperson for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, in an interview with Amicus. 'But nearly every act required to carry it out is.' Why Do People Try to Fake Their Death? Escape crushing debt or bankruptcy Evade arrest or prison time Escape domestic violence or organized crime Avoid overwhelming societal obligations Collect life insurance payouts (typically fraudulently) Pursue emotional rebirth or mental health recovery Protect themselves from political persecution or stalking Yet the desperation behind these motives often blinds people to the long-term consequences of getting caught. Real-Life Case Studies: When Pseudocide Fails John Darwin: The Canoe Man In 2002, Darwin faked a canoeing accident. His wife collected life insurance, and he secretly lived next door. He was discovered in 2007 and sentenced to over six years in prison. Ken Kesey: A Literary Disappearance Famous author Ken Kesey faked his suicide in 1966 to avoid jail time for marijuana possession. He fled to Mexico but was later arrested and served his sentence. Arthur Bennett: From Fire to Federal Charges A U.S. Marine faked his death in a fire in 1994 to avoid child molestation charges. Living under a false identity, he was caught years later and brought to justice. John Stonehouse: The Politician Who Vanished The British Member of Parliament staged his drowning in Miami in 1974. He was later caught in Australia and extradited, receiving seven years in prison for fraud and forgery. Lenny Larsen: Accountant on the Run Burdened with massive debt, Larsen faked a fatal car accident and fled. He was found three years later living under a false identity and arrested for fraud. What Are the Legal Consequences of Pseudocide? Even if someone isn't charged with 'faking their death,' related actions often bring severe penalties: Insurance fraud : Up to 20 years in prison : Up to 20 years in prison False reporting : Criminal misdemeanour or felony : Criminal misdemeanour or felony Document forgery : Multiple felony charges : Multiple felony charges Financial fraud : Seizure of assets and restitution orders : Seizure of assets and restitution orders Tax evasion: Fines, imprisonment, and lifelong audits Why It Rarely Works Faking your death is rarely successful long-term due to: Advanced forensics : Fingerprinting, dental records, DNA : Fingerprinting, dental records, DNA Financial trails : Bank account use, credit reports, and cryptocurrency transactions : Bank account use, credit reports, and cryptocurrency transactions Digital footprints : IP addresses, cell tower triangulation, metadata : IP addresses, cell tower triangulation, metadata International cooperation: Interpol, data-sharing treaties, and visa control databases The Legal, Safer Alternative: Disappear the Right Way Instead of breaking the law, those who want to start fresh can legally disappear and create a new identity with expert help from Amicus International. 1. Legal Name Change Court petition Public notice (can be waived for safety concerns) Use new name on all official documents (passport, driver's license, bank accounts) 2. Second Citizenship or Relocation Acquire a new identity with a second passport in: St. Kitts & Nevis Dominica Portugal Vanuatu Paraguay Panama These countries offer citizenship by investment, ancestry, or fast-track naturalization. 3. Disappearing Without Breaking the Law You are not legally required to inform family, friends, or employers when relocating unless you have legal or financial obligations (such as alimony or child support). Case Study: The Legal Disappearance of 'Linda' Linda, escaping threats from an organized crime group, contacted Amicus. She legally changed her name, secured second citizenship in the Caribbean, and vanished from her former life, without breaking a single law. Today, she lives safely, untraceable by her adversaries. Key Elements of a Legal New Identity Consistent Use: Use your new name across all documents, emails, financial accounts, and legal filings. Digital Hygiene: Delete old social media, scrub public records, and use encrypted apps. Create a Crypto-ID: Combine your new identity with anonymous blockchain wallets for financial privacy. Secure Professional Records: Update credentials or start anew if your previous profession poses a risk. Relocate Strategically: Avoid regions with extradition treaties if facing legal dangers. Use Only Government-Issued Documents: Avoid black-market IDS or identity kits from the dark web, which are traceable and illegal. Case Study: Professional Rebirth A healthcare worker facing harassment changed her name and credentials through Amicus. Her degree, license, and employment history were legally updated under her new name. She now practices medicine in a new jurisdiction, free from her past. Pseudocide vs. Legal Identity Change Feature Faking Death (Pseudocide) Legal Identity Change Legal Risk Extremely High None Longevity Temporary Permanent Risk of Asset Seizure High Low Use in Banking and Travel Illegal Fully legal Government Recognition None Full recognition Employment Eligibility Nonexistent Legal and traceable What You Can Expect with Amicus International Amicus has guided hundreds of individuals through high-risk transitions involving: Abuse and stalking recovery Whistleblower and witness protection Digital privacy reinforcement Crypto-asset protection via identity change Legal relocation for political refugees Services Include: Court filings for name changes Second citizenship procurement New tax identification Financial and digital footprint suppression Confidential relocation planning 📞 Contact InformationPhone: +1 (604) 200-5402Email: info@ Website: Follow Us: 🔗 LinkedIn 🔗 Twitter/X 🔗 Facebook 🔗 Instagram Conclusion: Don't Risk Everything to Fake Your Death—Choose a Legal Exit Strategy While the idea of faking your death may feel like an escape hatch, it's a trap disguised as a solution. With a history of failed pseudocides leading to arrests, ruined reputations, and shattered families, the smarter path is a legal and strategic identity transformation. Amicus International Consulting offers proven, lawful methods for creating new identities and living safely off-grid or abroad—without deception, danger, or criminal exposure. If you consider a safe, anonymous restart, speak to Amicus International Consulting today. Our discreet legal strategies provide lasting peace of mind for a life rebuilt correctly. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Boston Globe
21-02-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Looking for Ken Kesey in Eugene, finding permission and possibility instead
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Now, more than a year out of the Army, I had lost my momentum. I was teaching a class at a local junior college and stringing book reviews for The Patriot Ledger — but I was drifting. Walking Tess and watching the January waves thunder on deserted Nantasket Beach, I was dimly hoping a plan would coalesce out of the Atlantic mists. At some point I read Ken Kesey's novel 'Sometimes a Great Notion' and got it into my head to go to Oregon. Advertisement Kesey was legendary in the Willamette Valley. After the success of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and his subsequent adventures and misadventures, he had returned (some said retreated) to his family dairy farm. The old school bus from his Prankster days stood in the weeds in his yard, Day-Glo colors fading, still declaring its wistful destination: FURTHUR. He was sometimes glimpsed around town, but mostly he lay low, working on his books, one presumed. Ken Kesey's bus "Furthur." RCarlberg/Wikimedia Commons Kesey had done his share of life's road-going; perhaps he would have wisdom to impart, I figured. So, during my first semester in the fall of 1972, adjusting to being a student again, I would occasionally tweeze his phone number out of my wallet and consider giving him a buzz. Advertisement Eugene was quick to enchant me. If my Boston accent gave me away, I nevertheless felt a sense of permission and possibility. I was no one, so I could be anyone. There was the feeling of being on the floor of a real valley, with the hills rising to the east and west, multihued in autumn, white in winter, emerald in spring and summer. The Willamette, the river that gives the valley its name, flowed past the campus's north flank. Close by were bookstores, record shops, places to eat and drink. There was Mama's Home Fried Truck Stop for breakfasts; Taylor's on the corner of East 13th and Kincade for burgers; Book & Tea with the invitation of comfy chairs and soft music; jazz nights at Duffy's; and, on any occasion, beer-smelling Max's, its peanut-shell floor crackling underfoot. Neighborhoods of craftsman's cottages and small bungalows shaded by alders and cedars gave an impression of having evolved by a natural feng shui, with vintage stained-glass panels and ferns hanging in macramé slings on the open porches. And everywhere, moss grew on roofs because ... the rain. It was a presence, especially in winter, and this took some getting used to, but it was a soft rain, a mystical Irish rain. The town had an air of peacefulness, as though it were bathed in endorphins, or perhaps I was. There were athletes everywhere and track history was in the process of being made, with Olympian Steve Prefontaine earning laurels as a running phenom. And waddling around on campus were ducks (which provided UO with its rather unterrifying mascot). The politics, like the surrounding hills, tended green, a vibe that could nip with sly humor, like the sign on the bathroom door at Taylor's inviting patrons to make a deposit in THE RICHARD M. NIXON MEMORIAL TRUST FUND. Advertisement In classes, as a veteran in my late 20s, I was on the older end of the spectrum of students, many of whom were more competitive, more ambitious. I attended classes dutifully and continued to hold on to a notion that the academic experience might solidify around me as it once had and point a way ahead. One day an archivist friend at the university library contacted me, explaining that Kesey, a UO alum, had deposited a trove of his notebooks, letters, and manuscripts and wanted to have them inventoried. Was I interested? She would be in touch with details. Also, there was a professor looking to round up a few grad students for a study group. Led by him, we would read and probe James Joyce's monument of high modernism, 'Finnegan's Wake . ' It seemed a crazy idea — but why not? I was in. Thus, with these projects pending, I felt my scholar's life in the Emerald Valley beginning to sync. The author, center, with friends on the Oregon coast circa 1973. David Daniel Then, unexpectedly, my contact for the archive project announced it was off. Then the professor with a skeleton key to 'Finnegan's Wake' took ill, and pfft! — that project was gone too. I discovered I wasn't disappointed. I found that although I was mastering a knack for scholarship and the critical mindset it requires, I wasn't that into it. I was investing more time in my own poems and short stories, leaking some into print here and there. I felt my life expanding outward. There were new relationships, weekend drives to Portland and to the high desert in the eastern part of the state. One weekend I biked the 60 miles over to the coast, where the ocean was bigger, colder, wilder than what I was used to, and camped in the dunes. Advertisement A friend named Fred Widmer, an undergrad from UMass doing an exchange year at Oregon, was a talented fine artist, and for his final project he was going to produce a limited-edition volume of poems. He was making the paper and the ink, would bind it and illustrate the pages with his intricate woodcuts, but he had no poems. Was I interested in providing some? I was. At the end of the spring term, 1975, having completed most of the course requirements and one of the field exams for the degree, I decided to leave Eugene. It is we who create a place by loading it up with living. I felt I had done that. Would the younger me, hungry in a different way, have stayed on? Probably, but that person was no more. 'Axolotl' came out — a very limited handcrafted edition of poems. The Library of Congress has one of the few extant copies. I came back to Massachusetts where I've lived, teaching and writing, ever since. I never did call Ken Kesey. I kept his number in my wallet for years, the phone book page growing ever more worn with each unfolding when I'd show it to people. Time, like the river, goes on and the places it has passed recede. Some you look back to with a sense of gratitude for having been there. For me, Eugene, Ore., is a feeling, a sizzle of rain on mossy roofs, the piney tang of Douglas firs, a reckoning, a love, a poem, a ghost, a dream. Advertisement David Daniel is the author of nine novels and four collections of stories. His most recent book is Beach Town, stories set on Boston's South Shore. He can be reached at daviddaniel67@
