Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Fraudbusters

"Corporate conspiracy theorists, whistle-blowers and suspicious financial minds long have struggled to get an audience for accusations of business fraud. ... 'We're suddenly on Broadway, on the tip of everyone's tongue,' said Lewis Freeman, who has a forensic-accounting firm in Miami. 'Before it was off-Broadway, or even in Boston.' ... The group, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners [ACFE], said it has 47,000 members, up more than 25% in the past few years. ... Thomas Gaber ... said he also has taken on health-care fraud, sometimes working with the [FBI] and [DOJ]. The FBI and [DOJ] didn't comment. ... Most fraud examiners share a suspicion that criminal activity is rampant within companies, and regulators are incapable of stopping it", Gregory Zuckerman at the WSJ, 8 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124968993676315921.html.

The ACFE organization always left me cold. Why? It's members seem to be dedicated to ferreting out frauds against companies, not by companies against the public. Which is not surprising. Who will pay them by the hour to find frauds against the public?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello I.A.,

Fraud against the public should not be punished, they are stupid and therefore deserve it. How many times do people have to get burned before they quit giving money to maggots? At least during the thirties people learned their lesson for a good long while.

Independent Accountant said...

Edgar:
I never thought about it, but your comment gives me an idea of how we can suppress fraud. Imprison fraud victims! That will make them more careful. We start by rounding up Bernie Madoff's victims. It should be easy. Just see who filed claims against his company and have the New York FBI take them away. Brilliant. I'm sure Goldman Sachs will have the SDNY US attorney's office start this program immediately. I bet Lloyd Blankfein has Preet Bharara on speed dial.

Anonymous said...

"I bet Lloyd Blankfein has Preet Bharara on speed dial."

Ha!

Although I don't think Lord Blankfein will be calling about any stock trading software soon...