Don't let debt turn you to a life of crime!

My final blog is going to be a little different than the previous seven. I do not remember hearing about a lot of white collar crime when the economy was flourishing, but now since the economy has nearly hit rock bottom it seems as those many more cases of white collar crime are becoming more apparent. I cannot say from personal experience but when someone has a very high paying job and they are living the luxury life and then it is all taken away by the diving economy, he may be more likely to turn to some type of white collar crime. Like selling inordinate amounts of stock before telling the public that the company is diving. We have seen this in the news wit companies like Enron and others. I couldn't imagine having millions of dollars and one day just seeing it sliding out of control and out of the bank, I think I might try to do something to save it, although most of the time the only thing to do is something illegal. I am not condoning actions of this kind but I can't really blame these people for either trying to scam someone like in the case of Bernie Madoff, or just trying to end of with some money when you know the company is tanking like Enron. In looking for an article to talk about in this blog I came across one from the New York Times talking about people living in upper scale apartments in New York not being able to pay rent because the economy is so bad. It just talks about people that have lost their jobs due to the economy and are unable to afford the rent that they once could with their seemingly steady jobs. With this economy there is no knowing how long your job will last, even if you are doing a very good job it may not be enough because the company just needs to save money. One man cited in this article was laid off from Merrill Lynch and could no longer afford his 5, 700 dollar rent and also had 20,000 in back rent so he had to move out. I guess one thing to learn from this article is that make sure you have a savings for at least six months in case you lose your job to be able to pay for the basics like food and rent.

My major question from reading this article is, are these people more likely to turn to crime to get back to where they were? It would be an interesting study to see where people end up after losing their jobs and their houses. It would be a big switch to go from having a 5,700 dollar a month apartment to robbing a bank or something. But from past articles the amount of money you have is not what determines the actions you take. Having money makes things much easier and people that lose their houses and savings are at rock bottom and they may feel it will not get worse. I can tell whoever is thinking about turning to some type of crime that it does get worse, so keep fighting and try to get back on your feet. It is a very tough economic time but it will get better just try to do whatever you can to get by right now.

Source:
New York Times

Address for article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/nyregion/05evict.html?hpw

I came across a very interesting study looking at the correlation between victimization and reporting. On my past blogs I have focused on newspaper articles regarding white collar crime but I thought this was a very interesting study. The title of the article is, Studying the correlates of fraud victimization and reporting, written by Andrea Schoeper and Nicole Leeper Piquero. I am sure that white collar crime often goes unreported because it is not always huge multi-million dollar cases like that of Bernie Madoff. A lot of the cases will important the lives of the middle class and put them in a deep hole that will be very tough to get out of. This study tries to find out what some predictors are of white collar crime victimization. Because little is known about this subject, I mean is it even possible to have a list of traits for someone that might become a possible victim? I will go over quickly some of the results of the study in regards to people who are most likely to become victims and who most likely to report these crimes. The study came to the findings that people who engage in risky behaviors are more likely to become victims of fraud.The only other significant variable that could lead to victimization was age and the younger the person is the more likely they were to be victimized. This makes sense to me because the younger the person the less experienced they are in money matters and things that may be too good to be true may really entice them and lead to problems. Of course people who are on the risk taking side may get caught up in fraud by giving money to someone in the understanding they will double or triple it in a short period of time, usually risk takers are gamblers and putting money in the stock market is a type of gambling. The study goes into more detail about individual types of fraud.

The results of who is more likely to report these crimes were very interesting. Persons who had some type of college education were the most likely to report crimes of fraud or theft. In a less significant finding individuals who partook in risk taking behavior and were male were slightly more likely to report these crimes. Overall from the study people reported fraud 43% of the time. This seems like a pretty high number, but if you lost a good sum of money I am sure you would report it even though the chances of seeing that money again are slim. This article was very interesting and I will put the link below for whoever would like to look at it.

Link for article:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V75-4VV1B52-1&_user=521814&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=5833&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000059575&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521814&md5=85e0e638da3d582ad4e490daf1e4a80d#secx13

Source: Journal of Criminal Justice

I was looking through the online Contra Costa Times this morning and came across another scam of someone embezzling money. It seems this is happening everyday recently. It was no small chunk of change either, the woman totaled 675,00 from the state bar. The woman, Elyce Pearl from Oakland faces one count of embezzlement and six counts of filing false tax returns according to charges filed Monday by the Alameda County Superior Court. It is kind of funny that this money was stolen from the state bar, which administers attorneys the right to practice in each individual state and also does disciplinary hearings should an attorney have a problem. People usually think of the attorneys as the schemers or liars but this middle aged woman sure got a way with a scam for quite sometime.

The following is straight from the article and mentions how this women was able to get this money in her account, "The In 1999 it bought an office building at 180 Howard Street in San Francisco to use as its headquarters, inheriting some tenants that leased space in the building from whom Pearl was responsible for collecting rent. Brown's office said as early as 2002, Pearl was telling some tenants to make rent checks payable to "PLOT-The State Bar of California;" "PLOT" actually stood for "Piedmont Light Opera Theatre," into whose bank account Pearl deposited some checks and then — as a signatory on the theater's account — transferred money to her own." This plan worked for a while, with her spending the money she gained on fancy meals, designer clothes and lavish hotels. I don't see what these people are thinking, not too many people actually get away with these types of fraud clean and clear, either they need to stop when they are ahead, oh but that will not happen because the reason they keep doing it is because they are greedy. The end result is sure not worth it because if she is found guilty she could face up to nine years in state prison. That is a lot of time behind bars for trying to make easy money and not living a normal law abiding life like most of the rest of us.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12101473?source=most_viewed

Source: Contra Costa Times

Scams on the rise!

Thursday March 26, 2009

The financial crisis going on in this country right now is putting a lot of people in bad positions. Of course we know that many homes have been foreclosed across the country and now with that is coming people who are using scams, making out to be coming to the rescue but are putting these poor people in a bigger hole.

I found an article from the Contra Costa Times about these people using scams. The article mentions that the number of complaints about scams from homeowners in less than has gone from 10 to 500. So people are out there trying to scam people that are in no position to turn someone down for supposed help. It just ingrains the point that people need to be very careful about who they trust with their money, as I have mentioned in a past blog. The article mentions that these people using the scams will take money up front for promised help but things are never done and then the homeowner is out of luck, so do not pay upfront, wait until what is said to be done is done. I do not blame some of these homeowners for trying to do everything they can to make their bleak situation better but people need to know that these criminals are out there with no soul trying to take advantage of people in the deepest despair. The article goes on to mention "red flags" to look out for to prevent people from getting scammed by these people. This article was very informative in letting people know that are in trouble that there are people out there trying to hurt them and just pay attention to what might be too goo to be true. The article gives contact information in cases of scams and the proper people to contact in regards to scams and tough money situations. So the main thing I got from this article is to just be aware of these people using scams out in this dropping house market today and if the person sounds too good to be true it is probably not the case.

I hate to see people trying to scam people already having trouble, is there no compassion in the world today. It just shows you that white collar crime is a major problem even if it is not televised or in the paper as much as violent crime. This is affecting people tremendously and could even land them homeless out on the streets, these people need to be punished harshly.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_11986205?nclick_check=1

Source: Contra Costa Times

When will the fraud stop?

Tuesday March 17th, 2009

It seems that issues of white collar crime are becoming more apparent each day you look in the newspaper. I cam across another issue of fraud by a 30 year veteran of the Pennsylvania Senate. This is hard to fathom if you already feel that the politicians are worthless and scamming people out of money. It just leaves a sour taste in peoples mouths that people continue to steal and defraud other innocent people. This individual, Vincent J. Fumo, was convicted on Monday for committing $3.5 million in fraud, taking money from two nonprofits and using state employees to do political and personal tasks. This might not be a tremendous amount of money like Bernie Madoff scammed from people. It is just the principle of the whole thing, doing the right thing just does not seem to be enough in today's world.

The prosecution was looking for at least 10 years in prison for this federal crime. I feel that is sufficient on one hand because people need to learn that they cannot get away with these fraudulent acts. On the other hand he is old and has already suffered a heart attack so maybe if he was sent to a place other than a prison it might suffice. They just can't let someone completely off for taking advantage of his power. It seems that technology and the internet are becoming issues and could have let this criminal off because of something a member of the jury did. Allegedly a member of the jury posted a comment on his facebook that said to expect a "big announcement" on Monday. Of course defense attorneys tried to take advantage of this and argue that it tainted the jury and showed that he had outside communication about this case. If this guy had cost the case by this comment he should have been put in jail for a few days. I know he was anxious because he felt that the man was guilty but he needs to keep his cool and make comments when the case is over. He was just looking for a little recognition where it should not have been. I hope people will learn to stop stealing money from people and organizations and try to live a law abiding life, it will make this world a much better life. I can see people being tempted to steal and defraud people of money, the media makes such a big deal about money and wealth, but people need to learn that it is still crime even though in many cases no one is being physically hurt.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/17fumo.html

Source: NY Times

Don't Just Let Anyone Take Your Money! You Might Never See it Again!

I mentioned in my first blog that I had a first hand knowledge about someone stealing a persons life savings. It shows that you need to make sure who has access to your funds. A gentleman that lived across the street from me had a very traumatizing experience with this such matter. He previously owned a business and sold it after a number of years for a plentiful profit. He knew he had the money he wanted for retirement but put it in the hands of a money manager to try and make the dollars grow a little. Next thing he knows every dime of his life savings is gone and the money manager is nowhere to be found. He may lose his house and cars because now he just needs money to get by on the bare minimum, not for a nice happy retirement like he thought. This is the kind of thing that can happen to the normal everyday citizen, it just does not get the media attention that Mr. Bernie Madoff is getting right now. How sad for this to happen to someone who put trust into someone to make his money grow and then they did a magic act and disappeared. The whole basis of this blog is either don't put your money somewhere other than a bank or make sure you trust them with your life, which in some cases wont be enough.

I mentioned the name Bernie Madoff and that is who I would like to talk about. He has been all over the news for the amount of money he swindled from a vast array of celebrities. It is said that the total amount swindled could be 50 million. That is an insane amount of money. I saw a segment on 20/20 about Madoff and all the celebrities he took for a ringer, some losing as much as 250 million to this fraud. That is so much money I wonder why people would take a risk in investing it and possibly losing money. That is way more than you need for a lifetime, so why do these people continue to try for more, is it greed or an addiction for more wealth? This is a good question and one that cannot be answered easily. One person on the 20/20 mentioned that some people like Steven Spielberg lost 50 million or so but still has more than enough left for his life. It is the people that lost every dime of their life savings that really hurts. Like this family that I read about in Time magazine. They lost about 1.2 million on paper and other members of their family lost almost 30 million, this is just a sad thing to see that people may actually commit suicide over events like this. People losing their lives savings to a crook who just wanted every ones money for himself. I have a feed to the Time Magazine article at the bottom, feel free to read what happened to one family in result of Bernie Madoff's fraud. To take advantage of innocent people is terrible and that is why white collar crime needs to be looked at more and more these days, it seems to be ever increasing. I have a video of a show on CNBC that talks about Madoff and what many are calling "the scam of the century."

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1866398,00.html?iid=perma_share

Federal Investigators Say Plant knew Peanut Butter was Contaminated!

Thursday, February, 19

The picture to the left shows the peanut plant, Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Ga., which federal investigators say knew that the peanut butter manufactured in their plant was contaminated. It is a shame that in the United States large companies would try to skip out on making the best products containing salmonella. It will cost them more money in lawsuits than it would have to make the product salmonella free and start over. It might not be that simple though. According to a New York Times article, investigators said that the plant had mold growing on the ceilings and walls as well as foot long gaps in the roof. It is hard to believe that someone either failed to inspect this plant properly, or that the plant just failed to make necessary changes because of costs.

This has not just affected a few people and given them minor sickness, it has affected over 500 people in 43 different states and eight people have died. It sickens me to hear that they knew of the contamination prior to shipping their products and people lost their lives because a company was not doing their proper job. This is worse than an executive from a company embezzling money or evading their taxes for years. There is nothing more precious than life itself, and families lost relatives because of this company failing to do a proper job. There were as many as 12 times when the plant knew from their own tests that the products were contaminated from 2007 to 2008. Their desire for profit led to a disregard for people's health and well being by continuing to disperse these food items. This turns into a murder case, not just white collar crime. white collar crime has to led to murder many times. (Historically, it has often had physical consequences). It would be one thing if the plant had no idea beforehand but to knowingly send out something that has salmonella or has a good chance to have it is atrocious. The results of the products led to a recall of many products with ties to this plant. The plant was in terrible condition, allegedly with signs of rust that could get into the food and, areas where rodents could enter the plant. I hope justice is served in this case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/us/29Peanut.html

Sources: New York Times