The line between this and the classic fraud called a &quot;bust-out&quot; is very thin.<p>A bust-out can take many forms, but the basic idea is that control of a reputable company can be leveraged into an unjustifiable quantity of cash, which then disappears along with the perpetrator.<p>For example, a business might order more than the usual amount of stock from suppliers on credit, take out a commercial loan to cover expansion, and run a huge sale - even below cost - to pull in cash. Then the money and the owner disappear, leaving the business with debt to the suppliers, debt to the bank, and no cash.<p>On an individual scale, the same thing can be done with fraudulent credit accounts: establish a record of repayment, get a big advance, go. Identity theft is useful, since you can use someone else&#x27;s credit-worthiness.<p>That appears to be equivalent to what&#x27;s going on in PE.