Premium Essay

Accounting Issues

In: Business and Management

Submitted By mcmorrowjm
Words 836
Pages 4
Jenna McMorrow
Accounting 249
Linda Amman
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 the punishment that she got from her actions match the harm she has caused. Her actions caused many people to lose their investments, retirement fund, and part of their savings. The articles written about her say there are more than 10 wire frauds that were committed by Mrs. Niew. It’s disappointing that she is not getting charged with more.

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