Peter Henning over at the White Collar Crime Professor Blog has a link to an interesting story about what can happen when companies, in this case financial planning giant, TIAA-CREF depend on "the other guy" to properly vet their vendors, employees, etc:

...TIAA-CREF hired one Sonia Radencovich for a tech position without checking her background. It seems that Sonia came from a "preferred vendor" and TIAA-CREF assumed the vendor had checked her background.

Unfortunately, under her other name, Sonia Howe, less than two weeks before starting at TIAA-CREF she was sentenced to four years in prison for her part in the Martin Frankel insurance fraud that landed Frankel in jail for 16 years after he disappeared amid smoking documents in a fireplace in his Connecticut mansion....

Apparently, though, the vendor in question, Tek Systems , DID hire an investigative firm, as this Newsweek press release indicates:

Tek Systems used a unit of Kroll Inc., a well-known consulting firm, to conduct its background checks. A copy of its report on Howe -- obtained by Newsweek -- shows that she had used many different names over the years, including her real name. A spokeswoman for Kroll said Tek ordered only a "standard criminal background procedure" to search records over seven years just in the counties where she lived. The search didn't include Connecticut, where Howe was convicted in federal court (a Google search of "Sonia Howe" turns up many hits that include government filings citing her sentencing and her ties to Frankel, who's serving 16 years).

Click on over to Henning's WCCP blog for the rest of the story (including a link to the Newsweek article) and keep following the link trail on over to the Criminal Law Professor Blog for the original post.

-- MDT

Labels: background checks, Peter Henning