Sierra Damico
Book Report
Forensic Accounting

Joseph T. Wells did an outstanding job in writing his book, “Frankensteins of Fraud.” Throughout this book, there are ten white-collar criminals that perform fraud in such ways that they earn themselves and their companies many millions, sometimes billions of dollars. Innocent investors lost their life savings, their homes, their families….
A common trait amongst the perpetrators in this book was that every single one of them never saw themselves as a monster. The term “Frankenstein” to bestow upon these people was the perfect description. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein claimed that he became a monster because of the evil that surrounded him. He was portrayed as this monster and people were unable to see past his disgusting characters and only saw him as this horrific thing and therefore that’s what he became because he knew no different. The characters in this book began a scheme sometimes not realizing how big it would become. Some of the schemes that took place in this book had a snowball effect and if they were not continued and built upon then the perpetrator would be caught.
Many coworkers and employees had no idea that the company or person they were working for was a snake and had often asked them to perform duties to cover up small details of the fraud they were committing. Some cases like this included providing fake documentation to be entered, showing proof of collateral that in fact did not exist, forging signatures on original documents and many more. For the most part, this book was a fairly easy read but sometimes I found myself having to re-read certain parts of these small stories because y were a bit hard to follow. A few of these criminals had so much going on at the same time, you just had to sit back and wonder how they were able to get away with what they were doing for so long.
For example, Cassie Chadwick posed as the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie and used his deeds that she forged his name on (which she stole from his house) to take out millions of dollars in loans at banks around the country. Once she ran up notes at banks that she couldn’t afford, she would flee town and come up with a new name and a new story in order to get more money. She went as far as forging government bonds sometimes in the amounts of $25,000 or higher and marrying men for their fortunes. Once she dried up their earnings, she would move on to her next victim in another town and use another name. Eventually she was caught and imprisoned and Andrew Carnegie himself wrote off her loans made with his deeds even though he had no idea who she was. She died in Ohio State Penitentiary
Another person that very interesting was Ivar Krueger. He was known as the “Keeper of the Flame.” He owned 4/5 of the world’s supply of matches and was known as one of the richest men in the world. He was so rich that he acted like a freelance world bank. Monopoly was his game and he was damn good at it. He would buy out other companies that sold matches and then would buy companies that would produce the materials to make matches. Companies who didn’t want to sell to him were usually driven into the ground because he was able to offer such a lower price on his product. The companies who didn’t want to sell either ended up selling to Krueger or closing their doors. Another game of his was creating his own financial statements to make himself look better on paper. He would show high interest earned from his loans and showed high assets and little debt even though once the depression hit, he was not paid back by a few countries and he was needing to borrow money left and right to adhere to his immediate obligations. He even went as far as creating fake Italian bonds to have banks loan him money for his businesses. Krueger survived the Great Depression of 1929 by a thread but was caught and revealed during the Credit Crunch after the crash. Once he was revealed for the true person her was, he shot himself in the chest in his Paris flat.
Philip Musica a.k.a. “Citizen Coster” was a double-crossing snake if you were to ever know one. He had the most heavily disguised double-life that I had ever read about. This man played himself off to be a PHD holder for over 13 years when he was in fact a high school dropout. He had a pharmaceutical company named Girard & Company and called himself Dr. Frank Donald Coster. His mother was a silent partner in this business and together they bootlegged alcohol out of it. Ivar used his permit from the US government that covered 5,000 gallons of alcohol a month to create a serum that was supposed to help people with hair loss. Instead he used the alcohol to make his Georgian vodka. This is what he was finally caught on. In the previous years of his life he was a gangster who had participated in murders and did prison time for various reasons. After he was released from prison, he became an investigator who had people wrongfully executed to protect people that he knew. He went on to “serve his country so well” that he even had the chance to run for president against Roosevelt. Once he was revealed for the true person that he was, he too committed suicide.
It turns out that throughout this book there are were many crooks who shared a lot of the same characteristics. They performed fraud out of pure greed, they were caught in situations where they needed to be financially rescued, or saw an opportunity to get rich and simply took it no matter what the consequences were. A few took the easy way out and offed themselves while others faced their doings and spent a good portion of their lives in prison. Some died in prison while others were lucky enough to be given a second chance to be amongst society.
After reading this book, I can honestly say this was a very good read. Wells did an awesome job telling each criminal’s individual story and actually made it interesting. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about fraud.