Heist 88 - Stealing Before Banks Computerize Systems

Heist 88 is a new Showtime movie, based on true story, and is available to watch on Paramount Plus. The protagonist Jeremy Horne is played by Courtney B. Vance. Jeremy Horne is the criminal mastermind who comes up with a plan to rob the First Bank in Chicago of $80 million dollars. Historically interesting part of the story and the movie is that Jeremy finds a glitch in bank wire transfers before they computerized their system. It is equivalent of social engineering hackers utilize these days. . Some parts of the movie are different than the what happened in the true heist story. While the protagonist is presented as Jeremy Horne, the character is based on real life of Armand Moore who planned and executed the heist. In the movie the amount stolen is $80 million, in the real story it is $70 million.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the movie yet and are planning to, please stop reading the post here. This post may contain spoilers. Feel free to return to share your thoughts after you have watched the movie. I did enjoy watching the movie and would recommend.

As the name of the movie suggests, the heist takes place in 1988. Interesting times. It turns out this was the time when banks decided to start computerizing their system. While computers did exist before that and were available in banks, certain operations were not fully computerized. In the case of the heist and the main reason for the heist, the wire transfers were approved by phone calls using special codes. While codes did change in few hours, they did leave room for human error for social engineering. There had to be the second phone call and confirmation before the transfer was approved, that too utilized the secret code. It may seem very simple now and could easily be manipulated. I am sure there were some checks in place to make sure banks didn't lose money. In the real story and the movie it wasn't all about social engineering but also involved inside knowledge. It probably wouldn't be that easy to steal a lot of money from a bank without inside help.

Jeremy Horne is a criminal mastermind who has dedicated his life to steal money as a con-artist. Having experienced hardships of life as a child, and having exceptional mathematical skills, Jeremy has discovered early on that his skills could bring him wealth not just by working hard by stealing from wealthy and banks. The overall prejudice and discriminations he experiences against blacks in the society and workplaces, convinces him that stealing from the system isn't necessarily bad or a crime.

The movie starts off with the funeral of Jeremy's brother, where he meets his nephew Marshall who tells his uncle that he is in trouble and needs money. Marshall introduces Jeremy to his friends who work at the bank and earn minimum wage. After that initial meeting Jeremy saw an opportunity, and started planning the heist of millions from the First Bank in Chicago. Since Marshall was the key and connection to these young bank employees, Jeremy gave Marshall money to resolve his money troubles and be focused to execute what Jeremy has planned next.

Jeremy has his owns problems with his previous criminal scheme going wrong putting himself and his associate in the danger of going to prison. To protect his associates he makes a deal with authorities and agrees for five years of prison time. He is wearing a gps tracking device. Before turning himself in, he is planning to do one more job and make it right with his associates. That is when he starts planning his Heist 88. With his experience, his convinced to recruit his nephew Marshall and his friends for the heist. He invites them to a warehouse, where his going to present his plan for the heist. Before this meeting, he does his research not only on the bank, its wealthy clients, but also on Marshalls friends to be better equipped to convince them.

All new recruits receive secretive cards with opportunity for a business. When they arrive to the meeting they are surprised to see Jeremy. Jeremy doesn't waste time and goes to business explaining what the meeting about. Everybody's initial reaction is negative, and they are not interested in Jeremy's plans. However, Jeremy offers money for their time, and already knows they will come around due to their life situations. As Jeremy predicts after few days and discussing amongst themselves Marshall and his friends decide to participate in Jeremy's heist as they money would significantly improve their life, and by that point they had plenty to be frustrated about.

Jeremy starts training new recruits and explaining each step of the heist. Unlike usual heist, they didn't have to physically rob the banks to steal cash or gold. Their plan was simple, since they have the information on the wealthy clients, their bank balances, secret codes, they just had to play roles in a synchronized fashion. While those in the bank would respond the calls and approve the transfers, those who are outside the bank would do take the second phone call pretending to be somebody else and also providing the secret code. As they are planning the heist, Ladonna overhears that systems are doing to be switched to computers in days or weeks and they have no time to waste and execute the heist. Originally they planned to steal $230 million, but with the latest news they need to change the plans and settle for stealing $80 million instead.

Everything planned for the heist goes as planned and they are able to steal $80 million. However, when Jeremy tries to transfers to oversees account in Geneva, his bank requests his physical presence due to transfer amount being large. Jeremy does go to the bank and able to get the funds transferred to Geneva account. In the meantime, his old associate are already in Switzerland and cashing out the stolen funds. After all funds are transferred to Geneva, Jeremy and his new crew are ready to leave the country. They know staying in the country is not safe and they can get caught. They are at the airport and ready to board the plane. Unfortunately, one of the heist team members, Danny has had contacted the FBI and made a deal. Pretending he is calling his wife, he informs FBI whereabouts of the crew, and rush in to arrest them all.

While they were successful in stealing the money from the bank and almost got away, they were caught. That is where the movie ends. I wish it showed what happened to all characters involved. They leave that part for us to guest. When Danny made a deal with FBI, he did specifically ask for a written guarantee that him and his friends would be protected and was only willing to give up Jeremy. It is not clear from the ending if Jeremy was the only one who faced the consequences.

Reading up about Armand Moore and his heist, it looks like the real story was a little bit different. In the real story they were caught after a while when they started spending money on luxury items, and didn't leave the country or didn't even try. Armand did get 10 years in prison for this crime. I am not sure what happened to other participants. Banks were able to get the stolen money bank. That doesn't seem to be the case in the movie.