Searching for People with ZoomInfo

By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor
March 31, 2005

ZoomInfo is a free service that's gathered information about more than 25 million people—including you, if you have even a minimal presence on the web.

Searching for information about people is one of the most common things people do on the web. Look at any of the query reporting services, such as Google's Zeitgeist, the Lycos 50 or the Yahoo Buzz Index, and the names of celebrities or notorious people invariably crowd the top the lists.

Searching for information about people you know, like friends, neighbors, ex-lovers (and admit it—yourself!) is such a common activity on Google that it has become a verb. Problem is, Googling someone who hasn't accumulated a lot of PageRank or other Google cred du jour is at best a crap shoot, with results that make it all but impossible to distinguish between John Doe and Jon Doh.

ZoomInfo was created specifically to help searchers locate accurate, reliable information about people. The service crawls the web much like others search engine, but focuses on information about people. Using a combination of artificial intelligence and natural language techniques, ZoomInfo connects information about individuals from disparate sources and gradually builds up online resumes that include employment information, educational background and other details.

It's a useful service, but not without flaws.

MMC looks to sue ex-execs over defect coverup scandal

By TAIGA URANAKA
Staff writer

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday it will sue seven former senior executives of the firm for a combined 1.3 billion yen in damages over defect coverups that caused two fatalities unless the seven voluntarily agree to pay the amount.

It is rare for a Japanese company to seek individual damages from its former top management.

Four of the seven former executives, including one ex-president, are now on trial for professional negligence resulting in death in connection with the fatal accidents.

MMC said it is trying to demonstrate its resolve to break free of its scandal-plagued past.

"We have made a difficult decision (that is) necessary for us to make a step forward," MMC President Osamu Masuko told a news conference.

Among the seven are former Presidents Hirokazu Nakamura, Takemune Kimura and Katsuhiko Kawasoe.

Nakamura and Kimura bear "'responsibilities as top management for failing to establish a compliance system to file for necessary recalls" for the vehicle defects, MMC said.

Nakamura was president between 1989 and 1995, Kimura was chief between 1996 and 1997 and Kawasoe served as president from 1997 to 2000.

MMC said Kawasoe is to blame for improperly handling the defect coverup, which was revealed in 2000.

Kawasoe has been indicted and is currently on trial for professional negligence resulting in death in connection with a fatal accident involving a defective truck in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 2002.

The total damages MMC will seek from the seven are equivalent to the total retirement bonuses they received.

MMC said it will also ask 10 other former senior officials to surrender part of their retirement bonuses.

Masuko, who took the helm in January, said MMC has changed.

"The firm's attitude is fundamentally different from what it was back in 2000," he said.

MMC's sales have been battered by the ongoing defect coverup. The latest scandal broke last year. But Masuko said that domestic sales are likely to exceed the target of 220,000 units set for the fiscal year that ends Thursday.

AIG admits 'improper' accounting in deals with Buffett group

Mark Milner
Thursday March 31, 2005
The Guardian

American International Group, the world's biggest insurer, admitted yesterday that it had improperly accounted for a deal at the heart of a series of investigations.

The insurer said the agreement with General Re, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, had been wrongly characterised.

"Based on its review to date, AIG has concluded that the Gen Re transaction documentation was improper and, in the light of the lack of evidence of risk transfer, this transaction should not have been recorded as insurance," it said.

Berkshire Hathaway said this week that Mr Buffett, America's most respected investor, had not been briefed on the structure of the transactions between General Re and AIG or on "any improper use or purpose of the transactions". He is expected to talk to investigators in the next fortnight.

AIG said yesterday that improper documentation related to two transactions between AIG and General Re, each involving $250m (£133m). AIG said yesterday that the deals should have been accounted for as deposits.

Last month AIG acknowledged that it had received subpoenas from the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, and the US securities and exchange commission relating to "non-traditional insurance products and certain assumed reinsurance contracts". The New York department of insurance is conducting inquiries into related matters.

The affair has already seen the departure of AIG's chairman and chief executive, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Mr Greenberg, who ran AIG for almost four decades, was forced to stand down as chief executive only two weeks ago and this week confirmed that he would quit his new role as non-executive chairman when he returned from a business trip in Asia. Three other executives have also left.

AIG said yesterday that it would have to delay further the release of its 2004 figures as it continued to investigate its records. It warned that shareholders' equity could be reduced by up to 2% and that it faced tax charges of up to $670m as a result of discoveries thrown up by the review.

AIG said it was reviewing the impact of fresh evidence of its relationships with a series of offshore companies with which it had done business.

It said it would have to consolidate the results of Richmond, a Bermuda-based reinsurance company, in which it holds a 19.9% stake, after finding "previously undisclosed evidence of AIG control".

It is also examining its relationship with the Barbados-based Union Excess. Though AIG has no direct stake in Union, it said yesterday that "a significant portion of the ownership interests of Union Excess shareholders are protected under financial arrangements with Starr International ... which owns approximately 12% of AIG's common stock and whose board of directors consists of current and former members of AIG management".

Labels: AIG, Eliot Spitzer, General Re, New York AG

Local Man Finds His Tax Return on Internet

03/23/05

Charles Gray WTOC News

No doubt computers and the internet have made filing your taxes easier. But it can also be big trouble if your tax returns--and all the private information they contain--wind up online. We found one local man it happened to.

Don Bodiker uses a popular file sharing program to swap music and other information over the internet. He also uses his computer to prepare his taxes.

He never thought the two had anything to do with each other, until he got a call. "I had no idea who he was or what he was. I just thought he was a typical telemarketer," Bodiker said of the call. "And he wanted to inform me that my tax returns were being posted out on the internet. I was very skeptical but he then proceeded to tell me some very specific details about my tax return."

File sharing software allows you to download files stored in certain shared folders on other users' computers. The flipside is they can also download files from your shared folder. There's a folder on their computer the Bodikers use store the music files they wanted to share. What they didn't realize is that their tax return software saved their returns in the very same place.

"Oh my God, I thought everybody and anybody knows exactly what my social security number is, my address, you know, anything that I had that was pertinent on there that could be used as an identity theft process," said Bodiker.

And he's not alone. A simple search on the file sharing network for the word "tax" turned up hundreds of returns. "It's made me more aware of the possibilities of programs that you attach to your computer," said Bodiker. "Ultimately, if you don't have to keep it on your computer, make a hard copy, and file it away. And that's always the best thing."

That's some good, old-fashioned advice for the information age.

The good Samaritan who called Bodiker--he only wants to be identified as Jeff--says he's called dozens of others and has plenty more to go. He says if you use file sharing, just be careful your shared folder is not the one you save sensitive information to.

Fortunately it looks like Bodiker caught the problem before his information spread.

This is not the only trouble associated with file sharing software. People can also get into trouble for swapping copyrighted material. There is content out there that's free and meant to be shared. You just need to make sure your private information doesn't go with it.

Labels: identity theft

Former Impath CEO, president charged with fraud

Tue Mar 29, 2005 04:17 PM ET

NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - The former chief executive and president of Impath Inc. were charged on Tuesday with taking part in an accounting fraud at the bankrupt medical diagnostic company, U.S. Attorney David Kelley said.

Anuradha Saad, Impath's former chairman and CEO, and Richard Adelson, the ex-president and chief operating officer, are accused of participating in a scheme to artificially inflate the company's profits and sales revenue in order to prop up the company's share price for their own financial gain, according to the unsealed indictments.

The government contends that when the investigation into the accounting irregularities was disclosed in July 2003, Impath's share price fell more than 88 percent, resulting in a loss of more than $260 million in shareholder value.

New York-based Impath filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2003.

Four other former Impath executives, including ex-Chief Financial Officer David Cammarata, have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges in connection with the accounting fraud. They are expected to cooperate in the government case against Saad and Adelson.

Kelley said the investigation is ongoing.

The six former Impath executives are also facing civil charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

"The SEC's complaint alleges that the defendants engaged in an accounting fraud scheme that was simple yet brazen," said Mark Schonfeld, director of the SEC's New York office.

"When the company's performance did not meet Wall Street expectations the defendants simply plugged into the financial statements the revenue and expense figures they needed to get the numbers," Schonfeld said.

More here.

SEC suspends Qwest's former auditor

MAR. 29 4:49 P.M. ET The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday suspended the former Arthur Andersen LLP partner in charge of auditing the books of Qwest Communications International Inc.

Mark Iwan, the former partner at the now-defunct firm, is banned from handling audits of publicly traded companies for five years. He was accused of failing in his professional duties during audits from 1999 through 2001 by overlooking signs of what regulators have called a massive financial fraud at the company.

Qwest, based in Denver, was a once high-flying telecommunications company whose fortunes changed in the late 1990s amid excess capacity in the industry. Last year, the company agreed to pay $250 million to settle charges that it used accounting tricks to boost revenue in order to meet overly optimistic revenue projections.

Iwan's license expired in May 2004. As part of the settlement, the former partner agreed to cooperate with the SEC staff. The SEC two weeks ago filed civil charges against former Qwest executives, including Joseph Nacchio, the former chief executive.

Scott Schreiber, an attorney for Iwan, didn't immediately return a phone call.

Labels: Joe Nacchio, Quest

Amazon’s New OpenSearch Enables Search Syndication

by Richard W. Wiggins

March 28, 2005 — This month Amazon introduced a new service called OpenSearch, which allows a content provider to syndicate the ability to search the provider’s site. Announcing the new service at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology conference, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos proclaimed the OpenSearch mantra: “We want OpenSearch to do for search what RSS has done for content.”

"As you select each content provider, A9 sends a query to the corresponding content provider’s search engine in real time. Subsequent A9 searches will search all the content providers you’ve selected and present results in the columnar display. If the content provider’s search engine is unreachable or unresponsive, the corresponding column will show an error message."

"...Bezos demonstrated searching for “Vioxx” in a conventional search engine. Most of the results in a linear hit list will present the most popular Web pages containing that term. But if you use Amazon’s A9 as your search engine, you can select PubMed as one of your trusted “columns.” Then search A9 for Vioxx and you’ll see scientific and clinical results from PubMed in addition to the traditional Web results."

Labels: database

Labels: Enron, money laundering

Labels: bribery, money laundering

"Total Information Awareness" was the concept suggested by former admiral, national security advisor, and five-count felon John Poindexter, (conviction later overturned on a technicality). The idea was to fuse information resident in intelligence databases with the data from public and commercial databases. Add pattern recognition software, stir, and voila, everyone suddenly has an "information signature" that will supposedly allow astute analysts to differentiate the bad guys from the good. Well, apparently too many good guys objected to federal intrusion into their private business, so "Total Information Awareness" morphed into "Terrorist Information Awareness," and the project proceeded much as it had before.

The government, however, soon realized that even with its formidable spying capability, there was a great deal of information it did not possess, nor could it legally gather. Data-massing efforts were historically focused on foreign targets. Domestic surveillance was regulated by the courts and therefore required the annoying preamble of probable cause.

But no such restrictions existed in the private sector. Corporations could gather whatever information they wished about their clients or prospective clients. And those who didn't have the in-house capability to collect their own data could purchase it from firms whose sole function was trafficking in personal information. After 9/11, the government became another customer, trading in its court-sanctioned one-rod fishing expeditions for drift nets.

One of the companies the government turned to is ChoicePoint, an unauthorized collector of private information. It boasts a database of over 10 billion records and sells information to some 35 government agencies and about 400 of the nation's Fortune 1000. Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland called ChoicePoint "the world's largest private intelligence operation." Intelligence, in this instance, is a relative term since the company recently announced it was socially-engineered out of personal records belonging to 145,000 unsuspecting Americans.

But in terms of job opportunity, companies like ChoicePoint may be the future of the domestic IT industry.

Labels: database, GAO

Wal-Mart Director Is Ousted After Probe

By Roger Vincent and Kathy M. Kristof, Times Staff Writers

March 26, 2005

Reflecting stricter ethics in corporate America, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. booted its former vice chairman from its board Friday after an internal probe allegedly revealed padded expense reports, fake invoices and unauthorized use of gift cards.

Thomas M. Coughlin, who retired as an executive of the world's largest retailer in January, was asked to resign his post as a director. Three other Wal-Mart employees, including a company executive, were fired. The company said in a regulatory filing that the amounts in question could total $500,000.

It was unclear Friday whether Coughlin, the former chief of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse stores, was alleged to have personally been involved in the transactions or whether they simply had occurred on his watch.

"...according to this small piece in the Maryland Daily Record... Bloomberg have entered the legal database market

Bloomberg makes its move

Business news source enters field dominated by Westlaw, LexisNexis

By ANN W. PARKS
Daily Record Assistant Legal Editor

The walls of a law school’s computer lab tell the story. One half of the room is decorated in Westlaw blue; the other, LexisNexis red. There’s simply no room for a third major player or is there? Enter Bloomberg LP. Long a force in providing business and financial news and data, it has quietly entered the legal market with a product called Bloomberg Law.

HOB after a little searching has found the following press release from Bloomberg dated January...

About Bloomberg Law
Bloomberg Law is an all-inclusive tool providing in-depth legal analysis, filings, opinions, real-time and archival news, indexes, rankings, company and biographical information, research and streaming live trial coverage on a single, integrated desktop platform. Bloomberg Law is part of the comprehensive Bloomberg terminal. Bloomberg Law allows Bloomberg users access to a powerful suite of legal and regulatory research tools including real-time and historic online legal databases, daily litigation and regulatory summaries, plus real-time legal, regulatory and compliance reports. Bloomberg users can conduct research across fully comprehensive US Federal and State case law histories, legal case filings and dockets. Bloomberg Law provides access to Bloomberg's comprehensive regulatory databases (including SEC, NASD and NYSE) as well as academic legal journals, legal practice manuals and updates, plus a range of other legal current awareness services, all fully integrated with Bloomberg's powerful search tools. Bloomberg Law is accessible on the Bloomberg terminal at BLAW.

-- MDT

Labels: database

"did not effectively implement information system controls to protect the intergrity, confidentiality and availability of its financial and senstive information. Specifically, the commission had not consistently implemented effective electronic access controls, including user accounts and passwords, access rights and permissions, network security, or audit and monitoring of security-related events to prevent, limit and detect acccess to its ciritical financial and sensitive systems. In addition weaknesses in other information system controls, including physical security, segregation of computer functions, application change controls and service continuity further increase the risk to SEC's information systems. As a result, senstitive data - including payroll and financial transactions, personnel data, regulatory and other mission critical information - were at risk of unauthorized disclosure, modification, or loss, possibly without being detected."

Labels: GAO

Labels: insider trading

Flowserve settles SEC disclosure charges

Thu Mar 24, 2005 02:14 PM EST

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Flowserve Corp. (FLS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its chief executive agreed to pay a total of $400,000 to settle charges the company failed to properly disclose 2002 earnings forecasts, government regulators said on Thursday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Flowserve Chief Executive Officer C. Scott Greer reaffirmed earnings forecasts to analysts before providing that information publicly, according to an SEC statement.

The SEC also settled disclosure charges with Flowserve Director of Investor Relations Michael Conley, who the commission said did nothing to prevent Greer from violating the disclosure rule.

Flowserve has agreed to pay a $350,000 fine while Greer has agreed to pay $50,000. Both Greer and Conley agreed to a cease-and-desist order for the charges of violating the rule known as Regulation FD, the SEC said.

Read the rest here.

-- MDT

Railway tycoon Tsutsumi indicted over Seibu stock scandal

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former boss of the Seibu Railway group and at one time the richest man in the world, was indicted Wednesday for false entry into the railway operator's report on stock ownership and insider trading, prosecutors said.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office also prosecuted Kokudo and Seibu Railway as entities for insider trading and false entry in the stock ownership report, respectively. After being charged, Tsutsumi, 70, asked the Tokyo District Court to release him on bail.

Tsutsumi conspired with then Seibu President Terumasa Koyanagi to falsely describe shares in the railway firm held by Kokudo as those owned by individuals in its stock ownership report, according to the indictment.

Labels: insider trading

Gov't Confirms Criminal Probe of Hollinger

Tuesday March 22, 7:10 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — Federal prosecutors confirmed for the first time Tuesday they are conducting a criminal investigation of newspaper tycoon Conrad Black, his former top deputy David Radler and Hollinger Inc.

The government acknowledged the investigation in court papers in which it asked to intervene in a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed in November against Black, Radler and Hollinger Inc. The SEC accuses the men of engaging in a "fraudulent and deceptive scheme" to take cash and other assets from Chicago-based Hollinger International, the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times, and concealing the actions from shareholders.

Labels: Conrad Black

Justice Deferred - The feds' new weapon of choice makes companies turn snitch to save themselves

Vanessa Blum
Legal Times
03-23-2005

The Department of Justice last week scored a major victory with the conviction of ex-WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers for lying to investors and government regulators in an effort to cover up his company's laggard financial performance.

But even as government lawyers prepare for more high-profile trials against individual business executives, they are taking a very different tack against companies accused of cooking the books.

Increasingly, aggressive federal prosecutors are willing to put criminal charges they have filed against corporations on hold in exchange for cooperation in their investigations against allegedly crooked employees.

In the past six months alone, the Justice Department has announced such arrangements -- known as deferred prosecution agreements -- with six companies, including the Monsanto Co., Time Warner Inc., American International Group Inc. and Computer Associates International Inc.

Former WorldCom Chairman to Pay $5.5 Million Settlement

By BLOOMBERG NEWS

Published: March 22, 2005

The former chairman of WorldCom, Bert C. Roberts, has agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle claims by investors who said he should have known that the company's books were falsified before signing off on $15.4 billion in bond sales.

The settlement, after a $55.25 million agreement reached on Friday by 11 former directors of WorldCom and their insurers, leaves the accounting firm Arthur Andersen as the only remaining defendant in a case now scheduled for trial on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Investors claimed that WorldCom, the long-distance company, lied about its financial health in an effort to prop up its stock.

A.I.G. Fires 2 Executives for Not Helping in Inquiry

By JENNY ANDERSON

Published: March 22, 2005

Two top executives at American International Group, the insurance company, were dismissed yesterday for refusing to cooperate with regulators in a widening investigation of the accounting for some insurance transactions.

The two executives - Howard Smith, the chief financial officer, and Christian Milton, the vice president for reinsurance - were both dismissed yesterday after invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in dealing with regulators investigating a transaction between A.I.G. and General Re, a reinsurance unit owned by Berkshire Hathaway, people close to the investigation said last night.

The two executives had previously been placed on leave.

Labels: General Re

WASHINGTON (AP) - The brokerage industry's self-policing organization on Tuesday said it fined a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. $1 million for concealing sales of IPO shares from an SEC-approved tracking system.

The National Association of Securities Dealers said Spear, Leeds & Kellogg LP, which Goldman Sachs acquired in late 2000, hid sales of securities in initial public offerings from the Depositary Trust Corp. from August 1997 through January 2001.

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Newell Rubbermaid Inc.'s Graco unit was fined a record $4 million for failing to report promptly defects in more than 12 million children's products, some of which caused deaths and injuries.

The fine is the largest civil penalty ever levied by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency said in a statement today. Under the provisional settlement, Exton, Pennsylvania-based Graco will recall 1.2 million toddler beds sold between February 1994 and March 2001 because a child's limb can lodge in guardrails or footboards, the commission said.

Harrington v. Choicepoint Inc.
CDCA, 05-01294, filed 22 February 2005

Perry v. Choicepoint Inc.
CDCA, 05-01644, filed 4 March 2005

Salladay et al v. Choicepoint Inc.
CDCA, 05-01683, filed 8 March 2005

Pontiac City of General Employees Retirement System v. Choicepoint Inc.
CDCA, 05-01763, filed 10 March 2005

O'Brien v. ChoicePoint, Inc.
NDGA, 05-00686, filed 11 March 2005

See also TVCAlert's eariler post on the same subject.

-- MDT

Ex-CT governor Rowland sentenced to one year in prison for corruption

Friday, March 18, 2005

Former Connecticut governor John G. Rowland was sentenced Friday to one year in prison, four months of house arrest, three years probation, and an $82,000 fine after pleading guilty in December to a federal corruption charge. The sentencing period, set by the judge who heard Rowland's leniency plea, fell short of 15 to 21 months called for by the plea bargain. Prosecution ensued after investigators discovered that Rowland sold his political influence for over $100,000 in trips to Nevada, Florida, and Vermont. Rowland also accepted improvements of his lakeside cottage by state contractors.

Labels: General Re, Mintz Group

Identity theft: The social security number is the root of all evil?

The ChoicePoint and other recent data thefts have been hot in the news but I had decided not to post anything concerning this because 1)It's nothing new, and 2) It's gotten more than its share of press. However, I will continue to post selectively chosen articles in this area of public records v. privacy concerns now and then. One such article, No Security in SSNs?, by Susan Kuchinskas and posted on the internetnews.com site is worth a look.

Labels: identity theft

Agence France Presse Sues Google over News Content

AFP is suing Google for "at least $17.5 million" and "an order barring Google News from displaying AFP photographs, news headlines or story leads..." A Reuters article also says that AFP has asked Google to "cease and desist" from using its content but "Google has ignored such requests and as of the filing date of the lawsuit 'continues in an unabated manner to violate AFP's copyrights.'"

Police Foil $423m Cyber Robbery

Thursday, March 17, 2005 Posted: 6:27 AM EST (1127 GMT)

LONDON, England -- An attempt to steal a reported $423 million from a Japanese bank in London has been foiled, according to British police.

Cyber thieves intended to transfer the sum electronically to 10 bank accounts around the world after hacking into the computer system at Sumitomo Mitsui's London offices, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

But the plot was uncovered by the British police's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) before any of the transfers took place.

The Financial Times said the gang accessed Sumitomo's systems using software which captures every key stroke on a computer to gather secret information such as passwords and account numbers.

NC Bill Approved To Fix Rest Home Background Check Procedure

The NC General Assembly appoved a bill Monday to define how information in a background check should be distributed. Read the article here.

Bad Data Fouls Background Checks

While recent news has folks concerned about identity theft, inaccurate data is just as big a danger -- and individuals are left to police the problem themselves. Read the article here.

Data Merchants Have Got Your Numbers

Privacy advocates have long complained about scant regulation of the data-brokering companies that traffic in dossiers on almost every adult American. Read the article here.

Hiring Presents Tricky Areas for Employers

Employee background checks used to be a "hard sell" when Nadell started his Chatsworth-based employment screening firm in 1994. ... House Bill 1625, would shield employers from legal liability for giving information about a former or current employee's job performance to a prospective employer. Read the article here.

Background Checks Vary; Schools Fear Surprises

... and while local schools all recognize the need to be aware of improper activities by prospective athletes, none conducts a routine criminal background check. ... Read the article here.

Labels: background checks, identity theft

Westlaw will, we learn, sharply limit subscriber access to Social Security numbers in its database. This move was announced after the company's top executives met on Wednesday night with Sen. Charles Schumer, D.-N.Y., a sponsor of one of several bills before Congress addressing identity theft.

After the meeting Schumer characterized Westlaw's action as a model for the rest of the data-brokerage industry. "This is a victory for consumers and a big loss for criminals who want to steal your Social Security number and your identity,"

In an E-mail message to InformationWeek, Peter Warwick, CEO of Westlaw publisher Thomson West, said events of the past months in which personal information was stolen from competitors' databases illustrates the importance of tougher controls. "The ultimate test for us as a business is to do the right thing," he said.

According to Sen Schumer, Westlaw had now eliminated access to 85% of its clients, mostly lawyers and government agencies--including the U.S. Senate.

Westlaw will also no longer will sign contracts granting full access to Social Security numbers. Individual passwords will be given to law-enforcement officials deemed eligible to view full Social Security numbers.

Labels: database, identity theft

• Martha Stewart's latest post-incarceration moves (Lo-Jack ankle bracelet decopage project not included)
• SEC investigation into Ingersol Rand's possible role in the U.N. Oil for Food Program scandal.
• The proposed Viacom split.
• A brewing compensation scandal involving United Airlines chief exec.

March 17, 2005

IRBsearch, together with our data providers, will be enhancing security procedures and verification requirements for customers and will further restrict full display of Social Security numbers (SSN) in public and non-public records and Drivers License numbers (DLN). IRBsearch is working together with its data vendors on ways to allow authorized private investigators secured access to full Social Security and Drivers License numbers.

All authorized users of IRBsearch will still be able to conduct searches and receive the same results they did prior to this change. The hyperlink functions and searching by a Social Security number will continue to be available. The only difference is that all Social Security and Drivers License numbers returned in the search will be truncated.

IRBsearch provides instant access to data pertinent for investigations exclusively to the Private Investigative industry. We are involved in discussions on legal ways to allow authorized private investigators full access to Social Security and Drivers License numbers based on the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).

It has always been the policy of IRBsearch to conduct extensive verification procedures prior to accepting an application for services, and we will continue to be diligent in enforcing the responsible use of data and the protection of individual privacy. We will also be diligent in lobbying for the rights of Private Investigators to have full disclosure of identifying information that they depend on for investigations.

Other security related enhancements include re-verifying the applications of every customer, improving ID and password procedures and increasing efforts to assist customers in providing secure environments.

We are asking for full support from the investigative community to understand that these changes are crucial in helping to protect continued access to data that is critical for investigations. We stand united with the investigative industry and we share in the concern for a proper balance of protecting privacy while ensuring continued access to this data.

Executives at besieged information broker ChoicePoint Inc. have said they had no idea how vulnerable the company was to the identity thieves who recently tapped into personal data on 145,000 Americans, igniting a national furor over privacy. Chairman Derek Smith told CNBC last week, for instance, that management "never realized the sophistication organized crime" would demonstrate in order to access ChoicePoint files.

Court documents in the 2002 case of Bibiana and Adedayo Benson -- who were convicted and sentenced to federal prison -- shed light on what it took to steal data from ChoicePoint and open fraudulent credit card and bank accounts in the names of unknowing victims.

The case, which led to at least $1 million in losses, attracted no public attention at the time. Like the most recent security breach, it involved con artists using simple and time-tested methods to hoodwink the data broker.

According to the court records, Bibiana Benson applied for a ChoicePoint account in the name of Christine Lorraine Burton on April 2, 2000.

To get the account, Benson needed two things: Burton's Social Security number and a professional or business license. ChoicePoint requires a copy of "business or professional licensing," according to its current application form, because information obtained from its databases may be used only for "business reasons."

Benson had the Social Security number. (The documents don't say how she obtained it, but authorities say there was evidence her brother was involved in identity theft before the ChoicePoint infiltration.) The California real estate broker's license in Burton's name was a fake. Benson faxed the license to ChoicePoint along with the application form.

Labels: data breech, identity theft

"There's a very good chance we're going to put together a bill that will make it illegal to sell the Social Security number without the permission of the individual unless there is a legitimate law-enforcement purpose.....There may be one or two other exceptions; I don't know what they would be. I have not heard anything that explains to me why we should allow that to go on."

Labels: identity theft

JPMorgan Settles WorldCom Suit for $2 Billion

Wednesday March 16, 4:31 PM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) agreed to pay $2 billion to settle a lawsuit accusing it of hiding risks from WorldCom Inc. investors when the bank helped the company sell bonds.

New York-based JPMorgan is the last major bank to settle the class-action lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of hundreds of thousands of investors who bought WorldCom stock and bonds before the phone company sought bankruptcy protection in July 2002.

In this corner, in the blue pinstripe suite, Maurice "Hank" Greenfield - the grizzled and wiley World War II veteran and thirty-year chief executive who stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day, winning the bronze star. He is now the most powerful man in the insurance industry.

v/s

In this corner, in the white hat, Eliot "Babyface" Spitzer - the upstart, high-flying young Attorney General from New York state. Using his fearsome submission maneuver, The Martin Act, Spitzer has run roughshod over his competition is recent bouts.

Labels: Eliot Spitzer, New York AG

Citigroup: $2.575 billion
Bank of America: $460.5 million

Deutsche Bank Securities: $325 million
ABN Amro: $268.3 million

West LB AG: $75 million
Tokyo Mitsubishi: $75 million
Lehman Brothers: $62.7 million

Caboto Holding SIM: $37.5 million
BNP Paribas: $37.5 million
Mizuho Int’l: $37.5 million
CS First Boston: $12.54 million
Goldman Sachs: $12.54 million
UBS AG: $12.54 million

Dallas, Texas-based Carreker Corporation has unveiled a new risk detection offering to enable companies to prevent fraudulent activities. It has also announced a partnership with IBM consultants aimed at helping companies identify and prevent fraud. The Carreker Fraud Manager uses a detection engine to identify current and past fraud exposures in order to allow for enterprise-level risk management across multiple channels and relationships.

"Ernst & Young's accounting failures led Tower Air to report a pretax profit of $4.6 million in 1998, when it actually lost about $17 million. And Tower Air's reported $3.9 million loss in 1997 was actually at least $41 million larger, the suit states. It goes on to say that the firm never reconciled Tower Air's payroll account, failed to disclose that Tower Air owed $9 million in back excise taxes, and failed to book $2.75 million of travel agents' commissions as an expense."

Labels: Peter Henning

Gillette facing shareholder suits over acquisition by Procter & Gamble

Associated Press / Posted on Tue, Mar. 15, 2005

WASHINGTON - Gillette Co. said Tuesday it is facing shareholder lawsuits related to its pending $54 billion acquisition by consumer-products company Procter & Gamble Co.

In the suits filed last month, Gillette shareholders allege the company's board and management breached fiduciary duties in connection with the deal, Gillette said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Labels: Enron, FOIA

SEC Sues Ex-Qwest CEO Nacchio, Six Others

Tuesday March 15, 2:03 PM EST

DENVER, Colo, (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday sued former Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q) Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio and six other former executives, accusing them of perpetrating a massive financial fraud on investors.

The lawsuit, filed in Denver federal court, alleged that the Qwest management team filed false financial statements that hid the true source of the company's revenues between April 1999 and March 2002.

The scheme caused the Denver-based phone company to fraudulently report about $3 billion of revenue and also facilitated the company's June 2000 merger with US West Inc., the lawsuit said.

Labels: Joe Nacchio, Quest

Worldcom's Ebbers Convicted on All Counts

By ERIN McCLAM

March 15, 1:08 PM

NEW YORK (AP) - Bernard Ebbers, who built WorldCom from a humble Mississippi long-distance firm into a telecommunications titan, was convicted Tuesday of engineering the colossal accounting fraud that sank the company.

A federal jury in Manhattan deliberated eight days before returning guilty verdicts on all charges including one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings - crimes carrying up to 85 years in prison.

When the verdict was read, Ebbers' face reddened. His wife, Christie, and other family members broke into tears. Afterward, Ebbers and his wife hailed a taxi outside the courthouse and left without speaking to reporters.

Sentencing was set for June 13.

SEC Chairman Faults Corporate Advisers Lawyers, Auditors Reminded Of Duty

WashingtonPost.com. March 5, 2005
by Carrie Johnson

EXCERPT: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson said yesterday that he was disappointed with lawyers and other corporate advisers who failed to blow the whistle on recent financial abuses, engaged in "rhetorical somersaults" and "lost sight of their basic ethical responsibilities." Donaldson, speaking to a Washington audience of more than 1,000 securities lawyers, said lawyers and auditors are crucial gatekeepers for the integrity of the markets. Lapses over the past few years by outside advisers directly contributed to financial frauds that devastated thousands of investors, he said. "I hope you will not expend significant time, money and energy devising structures aimed at evading requirements and trying to achieve an accounting or disclosure result that . . . artfully dodges the rule's purpose," Donaldson said. The SEC has lodged 76 cases against lawyers in the past 3 1/2 years, chief litigation counsel David L. Kornblau said in a separate Practising Law Institute session yesterday. Kornblau said 18 cases have been filed already this fiscal year. "These lawyers did not seem to have in their vocabulary the word 'no,' " Kornblau said. The conduct of auditors at accounting firms of all sizes also remains on the SEC's radar screen. Agency officials said they will continue to scrutinize auditors' relationships with their clients for possible violations of independence rules. They said they expect more enforcement actions to come in cases where auditors have grown too cozy with their clients to render impartial reviews of financial reports. Separately, SEC chief accountant Donald T. Nicolaisen laid out several of his priorities for 2005. Donaldson said his office soon would release a report about corporate use of off-balance-sheet entities such as those that hid billions of dollars of Enron Corp. debt.

Labels: Enron, Standford Securities Class Action Clearing House

"Should “pajama surfers” get the same court records through their home computers that journalists or researchers get by digging and sifting through files at the courthouse? For those who say no, the distinction might lie in what the U.S. Supreme Court has called “practical obscurity."

In 1989, the Court, favoring a privacy boundary, suggested that there’s a “vast difference between the public records that might be found after a diligent search of courthouse files, county archives, and local police stations and a computerized summary located in a single clearinghouse of information.”

The Virginia Coalition on Open Government, among others, believes the opposite.

Responding to a proposal by the National Center for State Courts and the Justice Management Institute to develop a model policy on public access to court records, the Coalition decried the idea that some records, readily seen in person, are “too public” if posted on the Internet.

“The possible confidentiality of records should be based on the information contained within the records, not the medium on which they are recorded,” VCOG Executive Director Forrest Landon wrote.

Here is a brief summary of some recent developments in the public debate over whether court records should be subject to remote access."

"CM/ECF is a new case management system being implemented in the Federal Judiciary for all bankruptcy, district and appellate courts. CM/ECF allows courts to accept filings and provide access to filed documents over the Internet."

"Lexis Nexis has added a nice feature – Combined Search – which allows the searcher to easily combine multiple sources (databases) for simultaneous searching.

To use, simply login to Lexis Nexis, start at the Search-Sources subtab, and check the boxes next to the LexisNexis sources you would like to search. Once you choose a second source the Combined Sources button will light up in LexisNexis Red ™. Click on the button and enter your search as you normally would.

Two fine features of Combined Search:

You can combine sources from various pages. Thus, if you wish to search in both the Oregon Cases as well as the ABA Banking Journal, just click around the various source lists and tabs and add those sources. Ready to go? Click the red Combined Sources button.

Results are presented in a tabbed answer set. Unlike single-source searches (or Westlaw’s balky alternative), LexisNexis returns a tabbed answer set offering your results by category (such as cases, statutes & regulations, news) and sources (your chosen sources). After each is listed the number of results for your search in the respective category or source.

Labels: money laundering