Career
At the time, it was the largest bank robbery in United States. history. Working for a company under contract to develop a backup system for the Security Pacific National Bank wire room, Rifkin learned of the transfer procedures used, and found that bank agents would frequently write down the daily transfer code. One day in mid-October 1978, he made his way into the transfer room, saw the code, memorized it and walked out.
Using social engineering techniques, he then made a few phone calls and had $10.2 million wired to the Irving Trust Company in New York for the cr of the Wozchod Handels Bank of Zurich in Switzerland, where he"d already set up an accountant
Having previously set up a diamond transaction, he picked up 43,200 carats (864 kg) in diamonds from a Russian agency, which he had purchased for United States dollar 8.1 million. He flew back into the United States and began selling the diamonds, but a business associate that he was using reported him to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was captured shortly after, just before midnight on November 5.
