Archive for September, 2010

16
Sep/1015

Financial Crime – On An Upswing?

Lately we have been inundated with calls for new matters involving thefts and other financial matters.  Just having finished writing up another embezzlement investigation, there remains one for me to document and two in progress waiting on the last pieces of information.   Two more are waiting to be started.  We just completed 8 to 9 cases of theft or embezzlement, all matters being investigated concurrently, which a record for us.  We have several more in the works in various stages.

Recently I was contacted by a journalist from a southern state who indicated their region had been experiencing an extremely high rate of employee thefts and embezzlements.  She wanted to know if I had any explanations for why these cases all of a sudden were becoming daily occurrences, and also wanted to know if it was due to an increase in awareness or an increase in the number of incidents.  I told her I didn’t know for sure, but my best guess if that it is due to the increased level of thefts that have been occurring.

I have been asking colleagues and members of law enforcement over the last few weeks if they have been experiencing any trends with financial crimes and matters.  In every case the person I asked indicated they have been seeing a significant increase in this area.

Two nights ago while preparing for speaking at a session last evening, I used Google News to research how much theft and embezzlement is occurring.  I entered the word “embezzlement’ into Google News, and searched the articles found.  Wanting to see how many were dated within the last 30 days, I clicked on the next page until I found one article that was close to 30 days old.  It took me 17 pages of Google News before I found the first embezzlement article close to 30 days, and it was actually 27 days old.  If statistically one in nine ever make their way into the public eye, and if Google News reports ten articles per page, that means there were 17 pages at 10 articles, or 170 articles, and multiplied by nine (because eight out of nine will never be on Google News), that roughly translates into 1,530 instances of embezzlement (17 x 10) x 9 )… in the last 30 days!

Is the economy to blame?  Have times become so financially challenging that more and more people are turning towards theft to solve their individual financial problems?  Perhaps.  But in my experience with the matters I have been working, the thefts have been occurring for years, far longer than the decline in the economy started in 2007 and 2008.  These folks have simply been living life beyond their means, or stealing to fuel a habit, and the economy crashing while they continued to steal creates the illusiuon that their thefts were attributable to the decline.

If anyone has any solid insight into what is happening with financial crimes, I’d love to hear from you.

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9
Sep/1053

Fundraising: Thing of the past or sign of today’s economy?

My son’s boy scout troop did their annual door to door candy bar sales last evening, a beautiful night for walking neighborhoods as boy scouts, talking to people, picking up folks newspapers for them, and asking them if they would purchase a candy bar for one dollar to support the troop and their programs for the next year.

After hours of walking the neighborhoods, the sales were bleak.  In the past we would sell out of bars within a few streets.  It was not uncommon to find folks who were once themselves boy scouts or girl scouts, and remembered when they were out selling for their troops.  Some houses would even buy multiple bars.

Definitely not the case any more.  Most of the folks were home, their doors open, their tvs on, and some even talking in plain view on their phones.  They don’t answer their doors, they try to talk through closed doors (very personal that way), they simply ignore the door, or they come to the door and turn the scouts away without even hearing why they are there in the first place.  One house said no last night, and when the scout handed them their newspaper he had brought up with him, they changed their mind and bought bars – not because they wanted to support scouts, but because he had brought them up their newspaper.

I heard the same from many of the other patrols out selling last night – lots of houses and few sales.

Now the troop has upcoming popcorn and catalog sales for additional fundraisers.  My take is that if folks won’t bother to answer their doors and buy candy bars for one dollar, how likely are they to respond and buy other products at higher prices.

Perhaps the economy has had a larger impact on individual households than has been reported.  Perhaps door-to-door fundraising has become a thing of the past, and has outlived its’ life expectancy?  Hard to say, but one thing is certain, if folks won’t support programs like the boy scouts and girl scouts through buying candy bars costing one dollar, how likely is it they will support these or any other programs at higher levels.

Care to weigh in on the subject?

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2
Sep/10215

Twelve Traits – The Source

As a few individuals accurately identified, the source of these traits instilled in young men worldwide is….

The Boy Scouts. http://www.scouting.org/

Trustworthy    Loyal     Helpful     Friendly     Courteous     Kind

Obedient     Cheerful     Thrifty      Brave      Clean      Reverent

In fairness, as I only have boys in our family, I was told the Girl Scouts have a very similar character building motive for young woman.  In searching for these traits tonight, I was moved by an article I found by Janet Lombardi posted on the Girl Scout’s website.  Although directed towards girls and the Girls Scouts, it is easily gender neutral in the message.

From her article “Sowing the Seeds of Character” -

“Q: Why is character-building so important today?
Our children are getting hit with a huge barrage of mixed messages. They are confronted with peers, not-so-great adult role models, and media where they hear about top CEOs who value money more than ethical behavior. They are receiving unfiltered information from the Internet, song lyrics, video games, and TV. Character-building is nothing new. Socrates and Aristotle spoke about it. They believed that “You are what you are because of what you do repeatedly.”    Exactly!

“Q: How does moral intelligence connect to character?
Moral intelligence consists of seven essential virtues—empathy, conscience, self-control, respect, kindness, tolerance, and fairness—that guide your character. Once you plant the virtues, you can teach girls the skills to empower them so they can provide their own moral compasses.”   We seem to only hear about moral compasses when they seem to go astray.

Here’s the link to her entire article:  http://www.girlscouts.org/for_adults/parenting/articles/sowing_character.asp

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