...Ethical Paper 4/09/2015 Fraud An Oak Brook Chicago attorney, Kathleen Niew age 59, was once known as a successful real estate attorney and a popular radio host. Now known as crooked and corrupt behind the scenes. She used her law license to lie and steal from clients. Kathleen Niew used to host call-in radio shows on WIND-AM 560, and she offered estate and financial planning advice. Mrs. Niew also wrote multiple books about financial advice and lead countless seminars regarding how people can improve their finances. Kathleen Niew was offering advice to society, however behind the scenes she was bilking more than $2.3 million dollars from a Chicago couple who entrusted Kathleen with their life savings. Instead of investing and getting real estate deals for the married couple like they had asked, Kathleen diverted the money into her own investors. Unfortunately these clients of Kathleen’s are not alone, she has robbed multiple clients that came to her for help regarding their finances. She wired millions of dollars to a gold mining company in Australia, hoping to get a commission for herself in the deal. Kathleen had used the couple’s money for her own desires instead of theirs. Mrs. Niew pleaded guilty to 10 counts of wire fraud in 2014. Which resulted in her getting 70 months in prison, has been ordered to pay restitution of $2.34 million to all the victims of her fraud, and has to forfeit assets related to the crimes. She committed a Ponzi scheme, and I do not believe that...
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...Frauds and Schemes Introduction This paper is about the lies and deceits of people, and how they take advantage of everyone around them. We will be looking at two major insurance frauds and a major ponzi scheme between a father, son, and a small town in rural Utah. All of the people involved in these insurance frauds and ponzi schemes represent poor business ethics. Frauds and Schemes At the beginning of the economy going under some people weren’t sure where to turn to when their houses started to go into foreclosure, or they were so far in dept that they didn’t know what to do. A large number of those people got an idea that they could “accidently” start their house on fire, or make it look like a fault of some sort that they could collect their insurance money and life would go back to normal. Well they were wrong that just landed them a hefty fine and quite a few years in federal prison. A great example of this is an incident that happened to a man by the name of Marc Thompson. He was a high living executive of a Chicago grain company that went under and put him deeply into debt. In desperation, he torched his home for the $730,000 in insurance money. To make it appear like a suicide, he led his 90-year-old mother Carmen downstairs, doused the basement with accelerant and tossed the match. Marc Thompson was sentenced to 190 years in federal prison. (Quiggle) People all over the U.S. want to have health insurance that will cover their doctor’s visits and hospitalizations...
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...O’Connor and James A. Geisler were found guilty of “defrauding foreign investors through a large-scale EB-5 investment scheme in United States vs. O’Connor. Among other counts, the two men were convicted of immigration fraud and conspiracy to commit immigration fraud in relation to the EB-5 program” (Slattery, 2015, pg. 508-509). They formed a scheme called, “Invest in America,” where investors would not have to pay the extraordinary amount required. The payment would be something like $150,000 along with a $20,000 processing fee. The investors were told that the rest of the money would be financed through a Bahamian bank. This is just one example of the fraud that has taken place. Another one was the SEC vs. Chicago Convention Center, LLC where the defendants lured over 250 Chinese investors into buying $145 million in securities along with administration fees to finance the Chicago Convention Center (Slattery, 2015, pg. 511). Foreign investors even use the EB-5 program to started Charter schools in South Carolina (Smith, 2017). And the list goes on and...
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...Licensed to: iChapters User Licensed to: iChapters User Fraud Examination, Fourth Edition W. Steve Albrecht Chad O. Albrecht Conan C. Albrecht Mark F. Zimbelman VP/Editorial Director: Jack W. Calhoun Editor-in-Chief: Rob Dewey Sr. Acquisitions Editor: Matt Filimonov Associate Developmental Editor: Julie Warwick Editorial Assistant: Ann Mazzaro Marketing Manager: Natalie Livingston Marketing Coordinator: Nicole Parsons Content Project Management: PreMediaGlobal Sr. Manufacturing Buyer: Doug Wilke Production House/Compositor: PreMediaGlobal © 2012, 2009 South-Western, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be e-mailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2010940986 ISBN-13:...
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...Corruption Schemes Anaesha M. Whitaker Corruption Schemes What is corruption? The most common definition of corruption in the economic literature is literature is the misuse of public office for private gain. While private gain is typically interpreted in terms of monetary benefit, it can potentially include non-monetary benefits such as improved chances of re-election and helping friends or members of their social or ethnic networks obtain public resources. The usual interpretation of misuse is the use of office for illegal purposes, impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle, inducement to wrong or improper or unlawful means, but it is occasionally construed more broadly as the mis-allocation of public resources in ways that enhance the official's private returns. Recent years have also seen an explosion of empirical research on corruption measurement. The research conducted for this paper, which has developed and used both subjective guides which are based on perceptions of corruption and objective measures of illegal activity. The following topics will be discussed throughout this paper: Corruption Schemes Today; Corruption Schemes Tomorrow; Investigations of Corruption Schemes; and Detection and Prevention of Corruption Schemes. The research conducted throughout this paper focuses on the topics above. Corruption Schemes Today Corruption Schemes today are heavily engulfed in politics. “CHICAGO — Corruption has tainted...
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...over the duration of four years (2003-2007). Russell Cole and his wife Abby was allegedly accused of masterminding a multi-million dollar online bid-rigging scheme along with former Best Buy employee Robert Paul Bossany, who pleaded himself guilty in February 2009 to 29 counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. Investigators found that the Coles had reported $15.5 million dollars in income from 2003-2007, with $14.2 million suspected to be in connection with the fraud. The Chicago Tribune said that Russell Cole called his $2.75 million dollar home in Deerfield, IL "the house that Best Buy built," but was under scrutiny by investigators who claim that the money was obtained through fraud. The Coles lavish lifestyle also included owning a Ferrari coupe, a Lamborghini convertible and nine other luxury/high performance vehicles with a total worth of about $2.8 million dollars that was confiscated by authorities. The Coles' attorney told the Chicago Tribune that the Coles' "did not engage in a fraud against Best Buy...We intend, at this point, to present evidence to the contrary if they've ever charged." As for Bossany, he cooperated fully with authorities in exchange for a recommendation of leniency from authorities. In December of 2010, Russell Cole was sentenced to 15 years in prison on fraud and tax evasion charges, his wife Abby was sentenced to three years probation after investigators concluded that she didn't know about her husband's scam and...
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...Running head: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 1 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Pamela Turner Professor Ann Nelson Contemporary Business 508 February 13, 2013 Strayer University INDIVIDUAL PROJECT: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters 2 Individual Project: Forensic Accountants: Fraud Busters Determine the most important five skills that a forensic accountant needs to possess and evaluate the need for each skill. Be sure to include discussion regarding the relationship between the skill and its application to business operations. The age of information technology there is a definite rise in computer crimes, financial frauds, employee thefts and securities scams, insurance and bank frauds. The forensic accountant searches out fraud and criminal transactions in banking, corporate entity or from any other financial records within an organization. Forensic accountants take a more proactive, skeptical approach in examining books of accounting. The base of a forensic accountant is accounting knowledge. The dispersement of the knowledge of auditing, internal controls, risk assessment and fraud detection. There must be a basic or general understanding of the legal environment. The legal environment is essential in order to support the litigation. A strong set of communication skills both oral and written (Houck, 2006). Forensic...
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...market. The economy is at all-time low so the government is scrutinizing and penalizing businesses for inappropriate accounting scandals. Recent incidents of fraud have been noted in the media weekly. The new field of accountants has companies like Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom to thank for their new demand. The employees of these companies have plot, planned and manipulated the system. They have used schemes like the Ponzi schemes, embezzlement, false advertising, and Spanish prisoners. Fraud Investigators go beyond just criminal charges in court they are also used in family court. They use their skills when couples are getting a divorce; martial fraud is used when spouses don’t show all their assets. (Marden and Darner, 2006) The mystic new field forensic accountants are called in to investigate businesses for white collar crimes. Forensic accountant’s job is to investigate business fraud, incorrect financial reporting, and illegal investment schemes. Professionals interested in obtaining a job in forensic accounting have to process the following skills: Effective written/oral communication skills, strategic critical thinking, financial knowledge and background, and leadership skills, professional and ethical behavior. (Wells. 2003) It is important that professionals have these skills in order to meet the growing number of fraud cases in business. They must be well trained in the rules of evidence, financial data, Accounting Information System (AIS) software, as well as be able to...
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...Contract Fraud in the healthcare system EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this research is to learn about fraud cases that have been happening in the healthcare system for the past few years, and how those fraudulent acts were pioneered and executed. The main focus will be on three of the many pillars that make fraud a reality fraud – committing, concealing and detecting; that is; how the fraudulent was committed, how the perpetrator concealed it and how it was detected by the relevant authorities. Focusing on these three areas gives us the opportunity to take an in-depth look into the loopholes that are making it easy for perpetrators of fraud to be able to commit and conceal fraud and how their actions were detected. The paper will focus on only three of the many cases that made the topic of fraud in the healthcare a force to reckon from 2013 to 2015. These cases include a psychiatrist from Chicago, Lloyd Torrez who was found guilty of defrauding insurance companies; Empowerment Non-Emergency Medical Transportation, Inc. an enrolled Medicaid provider being led by its owner, Ms. Shorter, which was defrauding the Indiana Medicaid; and Paula Cluding, owner of Prairie View Hospice in Oklahoma who provided millions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent claims to the federal Medical Care program. INTRODUCTION Fraud is deliberate deception to gain unfair and unlawful gain from an act. It is both civil and criminally wrong, and the people who commit fraud usually do it to gain...
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...| The Lie of The Century | Analysis of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi Scheme | | ' Introduction As long as the investment financial market existed, only one man was able to etched his name to the investment history as the greatest fraudster, and his name is Bernard Madoff. A brilliant fraudster that able to swindled over $50 billion from thousands of people using a type of investment fraud called "Ponzi Scheme." Using this type of investment frauds and his charming personality, Madoff stolen money from politicians, such as Senator Frank Lautenberg, famous celebrities, such as Kelvin Bacon, hedge fund directors, such as R. Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, universities, such as Yeshiva University, banking institutions, such as Union Bancaire Privee, and charitable organizations, such as Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. (Deborah & Strober, 2009) In that one day in the 11th of December in 2008, thousands people wake up to know the money that they entrusted to Madoff is nothing more than just a "lie." In other words, numbers that exist without any meaning. Madoff's Biography Born in Queens, New York, Madoff established himself from a humble blue collar workers, who earned his money from lifeguarding and installing sprinkle systems, to a genius international million dollar investor, who stolen billions of dollars from his clients. His investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Security (BMIS), based in New York, but its clients are as far as from European, South...
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...largest Ponzi schemes in history. Discovering the exact details about who was involved, how heavily they were involved, and the extent of the losses incurred may yet take many years. The goal of this research is to attempt to explain how the fraud was executed by explaining various details involved in this Ponzi scheme. These details include how the fraud was executed, parties that were involved positively and negatively, motives of each party, controls that may have prevented or deterred the fraud, any SEC involvement, how the fraud was discovered, and the resolution of the case. It is best for cases like this to start at the top of the pyramid and work down through the pyramid. To begin, one must understand a Ponzi scheme and how it works in order to determine how Madoff conducted his particular scheme. A Ponzi scheme is designed to steal money from investors by promising consistent or large returns that are secured by previous investor’s funds. About.com lists five key elements of this type of scheme consisting of the benefit, the setup, initial credibility, initial returns, and communicated success (Mofatt, 2012). The benefit is the promise of a return at above normal averages or more consistently than usual. The next element, the setup is a believable explanation of how these returns are achieved; either through inside information or from access to nonpublic avenues of investing. The third element, credibility, relates to the person conducting the scheme being believable...
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...Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Act Student Name College or University Name LEG500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance Professor’s Title Date Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley The federal government passed and put into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) to primarily protect whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting corporate fraud and financial malfeasance to the government. The negligence became apparent in the 1990’s when corporations such as Enron, HealthSouth, Tyco and WorldCom were found to have grossly overstated their earnings. This cost billions of dollars in losses to shareholders and caused the near-collapse of the stock market (Prentice, 2010, p. 17). The companies were able to hide, scam or misrepresent their earnings due to the dot-com boom, soaring investments, and auditor fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act contains many sections, sub-sections and creation of other agencies to enforce it. It was a sweeping change to standard reporting practices and was created to restore investor confidence, hold corporations and auditors financially and criminally accountable, and protect whistleblowers. Prior to the creation of SOX the whistleblower had no protection from retaliation by the organization. Whistleblowers had fears of criminal prosecution, bodily harm and job loss if they reported the misdeeds of their employer both publicly and privately. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 redefined the whistleblower. An examination of the characteristics of a whistleblower...
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...Introduction In August 2001, it was discovered that the McDonald’s Monopoly game was a fraud. Simon Marketing, which ran the game on behalf of McDonald’s was responsible for the fraud. An investigation was initiated pursuant to a confidential tip. The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and dubbed Operation “Final Answer”. During the investigation to uncover the fraud, the FBI used several different forms of surveillance. In this paper I will describe how the actual fraud was committed and subsequent aftermath of the investigation. Case Study The McDonald’s Monopoly game fraud was discovered in August of 2001, when it was revealed that certain employees of Simon Marketing and associates had colluded to defraud the McDonald’s Corporation in excess of $13 million worth of game prizes over the promotion period (Albrecht et al, 2012, p.210). The Simon Marketing firm was contracted by McDonalds to run their promotional sweepstakes games. The game prizes consisted of cash, vehicles, vacations and/or food prizes. According to Richard Dent (FBI Special Agent in Charge), the main players involved in the scheme were as follows; Linda L. Baker, 49, of Westminster, South Carolina; Noah D. "Dwight" Baker, 49, of Westminster, South Carolina; John F. Davis, 44, of Granbury, Texas; Andrew M. Glomb, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Michael L. Hoover, 56, of Westerly, Rhode Island; Ronald E. Hughey, 56, of Anderson, South Carolina; Jerome...
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...The Effectiveness of Business Ethics in Education and Today’s Workplace October 13th, 2012 Introduction What do Bernard Madoff, Kenneth Lay and Rob Blagojevich all have in common? They all operated with no apparent ethical behavior even though each had received educational backgrounds in which ethical business practices were taught. As L. Zingales states, “While every firm can have its bad apples, when these apples are at the top, it suggests that a company has either a corrupt culture or a defective selection process, or both.” (Zingales, Jul 16, 2012). In Madoffs case, the Ponzi scheme had been going on since the early 1990’s (Morrissey, Aug 11, 2009). Under the direction of Kenneth Lay, Enron- once one of the largest companies in America- collapsed in bankruptcy and ruined the lives of thousands of people (McLean & Elkind, May 18, 2006). The Chicago Tribune reported that the Illinois House of Representatives was sending to the Illinois Senate a “13 point article of impeachment-a political form of indictment-alleging Blagojevich has abused the power if his office” (Pearson & Long, Jan 9, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to gauge the Effectiveness of Business Ethics in Education and Today’s Workplace. As business students they graduate from the university setting and enter the business environment they study the ethics in their workplace culture and often find that educational ethics training does not have any value in the work world. “Studies...
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...engaging in a massive and sophisticated Internet fraud scheme that infected with malware more than four million computers located in over one hundred countries which generated at least $14 million in illegitimate income. Of the computers infected with malware, at least 500,000 were in the United States, including computers belonging to US government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, commercial businesses and individuals. The malware secretly altered the settings on infected computers enabling the defendants to digitally hijack Internet searches and re-route computers to certain websites and advertisements, which entitled the defendants to be paid. The malware also prevented the installation of anti-virus software and operating system updates on infected computers, leaving those computers and their users unable to detect or stop the defendants’ malware, and exposing them to attacks by other viruses. In other words they manipulated Internet advertising business. For this event, in the conjunction with the arrests, authorities in the United States seized computers at various locations disabled the defendants’ network of US-based computers which include dozens of rogue DNS servers located in New York and Chicago. Remediation efforts were immediately undertaken to minimize any disruption of Internet service to the user of computers infected with the Malware. It’s difficult to identify this kind fraud, since it is hard to know who behind a computer and...
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