Case Studies

A clueless organization?

As reported in the media on September 9, Wells Fargo negotiated a deal to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Comptroller of Currency, and the City and County of Los Angeles. As part of the $185 million settlement Wells Fargo didn’t admit to any wrongdoing. However, it did confirm to the regulators and media that employees had opened more than two million checking, savings and credit card accounts without customer approval.

The chief was a thief

What tears at the fabric of a small town? Theft, betrayal and a loss of confidence in the very institutions that make the town a great place to live. This is the story of how a small gap became a gaping hole in oversight, management and internal controls, which resulted in a theft of more than $250,000.

Misplaced trust

The financial problems of church council members John Osborn and Mary Meyers motivated them to steal the church’s endowment funds. Here’s how the couple exploited their position of trust within the congregation to commit this devastating fraud.

To snare a menace

Identity theft attracts fraudsters because they can steal significant amounts with extreme anonymity, and victims and law enforcement can seldom pursue them. However, the authors describe an investigation that yielded the arrest and prosecution of a fraudster who used “synthetic identity theft” and other crimes to steal millions. Learn about their practical methods and a stunning twist.

Do numbers lie?

Corporate management has significant latitude in choosing what numbers to report and when. But business pressures can cloud their judgment. This article examines how using accounting gimmicks and manipulating financial statements might satisfy investors but can cross into fraudulent territory.

Tax preparers gone wild

In part one of this two-parter, we examined the schemes of Bonnie G, a self-styled tax preparer who worked out of her basement creating federal and state income tax returns for her clients that contained lies cut from whole cloth to falsely qualify her clients for tax refunds and induce them to continue using — and paying for — her services. Here we’ll examine the simpler but equally effective (or lucrative) scheme of Donnie Z., another tax preparer who never made it out of the basement.

Inventory inflation schemes come in many flavors

In this edition, I’ll examine some recent cases involving improper accounting for inventory resulting in overstated assets. As with so many of the companies in the cases I profile, the players in two of the three cases were motivated primarily by a desire to meet published or internal goals for gross profit.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Crime, of course, doesn’t pay. And committing another crime in an attempt to resolve the financial consequences from the first will only dig the perpetrator into a deeper hole. In Dixon’s case, she narrowly avoided jail time for her initial fraud at Classen, but she’s now serving time for the Tompkins County probation violation and could serve even more from the drug charge in Nebraska.

When the Wright Brothers became fraud examiners

The world knows Orville and Wilbur Wright as the team that designed, built and flew the first successful powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine. However, few know that Wilbur and his older brother, Lorin, once came to the aid of their father, Bishop Milton Wright, an itinerant “circuit” preacher, to expose suspected financial abuse in the United Brethren Church.

Tax preparers gone wild

Many naïve taxpayers — who believe that all tax preparers have to be certified, licensed or regulated in some way — place their entire trust in supposed experts to handle one of the most serious dimensions of adult life.

She-wolves in shepherd's clothing

Greed is everywhere. It pollutes all industries and organizations, including those dedicated to helping the poorest and most vulnerable of our society. And it breeds fraudsters within these organizations who have profound canniness and precisely zero moral queasiness when selecting their victims. Fraudsters like Emma and Kate.

Dirty digital dollars

Cybercrime and identity theft have evolved into a sophisticated global economy. Perpetrators use the anonymity provided by digital currency and the internet to hide themselves, their criminal acts and their gains. This nine-year cybercrime investigation case illustrates one of the few law enforcement successes in fighting these crimes.