More Than All the Money in the World – The Weird Side of the Internet

More Than All the Money in the World – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

Ever pay a fine? I think we all have. I’ve paid a few. One thing I have been lucky to avoid is the kind of fine where, if you don’t pay it, it compounds. Maybe a handful of you have been up that creek. If, for example, your car gets towed and it’s in the lot for a few days, that can get pretty pricey. But at some point, there’s a limit. Like the towing company scraps your car, or a court puts out a bench warrant for you. But you have to wonder how far that kind of fine really could go.

Wonder no more. Enter Alphabet, parent company of Google. They have a fine, a big one. They won’t pay because they can’t pay because nobody could. The fine is for more money than there is in the world.

Google was brought to suit by Russia, who went after them because they, Google, removed Russian TV channels from YouTube. Apparently they did it in such a way that it was illegal. Google said it was because they were state television. This was in 2020. A year later, Ukraine. And more Russian channels got blocked, so more plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Russian courts sided with Russia, of course, and Alphabet was fined 100,000 rubles. About a grand U.S.. But if it wasn’t paid, double the amount was added every week. And Alphabet didn’t pay.

Current fine is, and we’ll go U.S. here, $1.85 undecillian dollars, $1.85 followed by 37 zeroes. Now estimates of all money or possible moneys or things worth money is about $1.2 quadrillion dollars, 0r twelve-hundred trillion dollars. So really, Alphabet is never paying this. Most likely, if they’re able to do business in Russia again, they’ll end up with a real honey offer for settlement.

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