10/31/2008
Very Private Investigator
10/30/2008
A Look at the Corporate Internal Investigation
The Man In Charge of the $800 Billion Bailout
Is a bit of a tool?But weren't we all in high school...
-- MDT
10/29/2008
Schulman Also Sentenced
The last man on the hook for Milberg Weiss's plaintiff kickback scheme gets his own six months. Great re-cap of the sentencing of both Steve Schulman and David Bershad
from The National Law Journal's Legal Pad.--MDT
Labels: David Bershad, Milberg Weiss, sentencing, Steven Schulman
10/27/2008
Milberg's David Bershad Gets Six Months
The former Milberg Weiss partner plead guilty last year to charges relating to his role in the law firm's 20 year scheme to to line up choice lead plantiffs thanks to generous, if illegal, kickbacks. Bershad, who has already forfeited about $8 million, was also assessed a $250,000 fine.
More on Bershad's sentencing via Bloomberg.-- MDT
Labels: David Bershad, Milberg, Milberg Weiss
10/24/2008
Italian Socialite Con-Man Gets 4 Years
I think this may be the first time I have ever
linked to the People Magazine website, but for Raffaello Follieri I'll make an exception.
Follieri plead guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy back in September.
He also got dumped.
All this is a far cry from August of 2006 when he was partying on his yacht with the A-list,
including a certain U.S. Senator currently running for president. Just saying...
-- MDT
Labels: Raffaello Follieri
Lying, Cheating Stealing
Prosecutors sifting through the financial meltdown mess
stick to the classics.-- MDT
Lifeboat Empties at ExecutiveAction
ExecutiveAction is the, apparently troubled, risk management firm founded by Neil Livingstone, formerly of
GlobalOptions. It is well known that Livingstone's parting from GlobalOptions was less than cordial and it would seem that acrimony has followed him to his new digs.
Intelligence Online is reporting that multiple senior staff have bailed from Livingstone's new venture.This defection comes at the same time some of the current prime movers at GlobalOptions, and
have been named in an investigation of controversial Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska was apparently Livingstone contact initially, and is only one of the
dodgy characters from that part of the world with which Livingstone has been known to associate himself.
In any case,
click on though to the IO article for full details on the sitch at ExecutiveAction.-- MDT
Labels: ExecutiveAction, GlobalOptions, Neil C. Livingstone, Oleg Deripaska
10/23/2008
Operation Devil Horns - Violent Gang Faces Racketeering Indictment
MS-13 is
quite active in our area of DC / Northern VA, but it looks like Northern California is going to take a hard crack at them - they've named 22 defendants in a sprawling indictment that covers "murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, extortion, witness tampering, narcotics trafficking and the interstate transportation of stolen vehicles.
More via MarketWatch.-- MDT
Labels: gangs, MS 13, racketeering
10/20/2008
Bankruptcy Offers No End to Lehman's Troubles
Count 'em - three Federal criminal probes (Brooklyn, Manhattan and Newark) and 12 subpoenas for their trouble. Lehman is of course also one of the twenty-some-odd firms the FBI is investigating in their look at mortgage lending and securitization.
More via Bloomberg.
-- MDT
Labels: bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers, mortgage backed securities
More On the Rogue Trading at Caisse d'Epargne
Steve Chesnowitz Does Indeed Have His Detractors
And at least one of them would like you to know (passed to me through the grapevine):
1. The net is closing in on him.
2. He has some kind of company in Nevada. He still works out of there, at least on paper.
3. Steve is an American citizen. His mother lives in Florida while he resides in they're jointly owned home just outside of Kitchener, Ontario.
4. His pregnant wife and new baby girl left him about 2 months ago.
5. When his wife left she took all his computers and files and handed them over to the police department in Cambridge/Waterloo. Fraud dept. A - detective Zensner knows about the case.
6. To my knowledge he still has at least one of the antique cars and probably the second one as well stored in Kitchener, Ontario Canada.
7. He's still operating through a company called Pine Lake Communications.
And in closing:
"He owes everybody and has mortgaged his mother and his house to the hilt, but you can bet that he has money squirreled away somewhere. He's a fat, pampered, coward."
Not up on Chesnowitz?
Here's your background.Labels: Stephen Chesnowitz
10/19/2008
FBI Plans to Double Manpower on White Collar Crime
Kerviel Case Moves Forward
What Do Societe Generale, MF Global and Credit Suisse Have in Common?
Rogue Traders all around.
The Financial Times details what steps European banks are taking to avoid being the next institution on this list.
See also:
The next bank on this list.
-- MDT
Labels: Caisse d'Epargne, Credit Suisse, MF Global, Societe Generale
AIG Post-Bailout Extravagance Investigated
10/14/2008
GlobalOptions, A Russian Tycoon and Money Laundering
Those would be three things you most definitely do not want to see together in a sentence if you are risk consultancy,
GlobalOptions. And yet these days it almost seems a given that in an article that involves an investigative firm and shady dealings in Russia, GlobalOptions is guaranteed at least a walk-on part...
In the complex case of Russian, billionaire and metal magnate,
Oleg Deripaska, unfortunately, the role for GlobalOptions seems quite serious.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, GlobalOptions is one of several consultancies, attorneys and associates of Deripaska that are currently under investigation regarding tens of millions of potential laundered dollars that were
permanent pressed via wire transfers from Deripaska's various enterprises.
To take a step back from the matter at hand, Mr. Deripaska cuts quite the controversial figure, even for the 40 year old Russian billionaire set.
Currently number nine on the Forbes Billionaires list,
Deripaska had his U.S visa rescinded in 2007 for reasons undisclosed by the State Department. Media reports attributed the move to concerns over Deripaska's connections to organized crime (and false statements that Deripaska did not officially make to the FBI when he was not officially interviewed).
Those specifically named by the WSJ from the GlobalOptions team as being investigated in the money laundering probe are GlobalOptions joint venture partner,
Alexander Mirtchev and firm President,
Thomas Ondeck. Under scrutiny from authorites are more than $50 million in suspicious Deripaska-related wire transfers, about $10 million of which ended up in the hands of GlobalOptions.
Thus far the GlobalOptions team, via Mirtchev, has stated that any monies received from Deripaska were unquestionably for legal and law abiding, albeit confidential, services rendered. Further more, via counsel, GlobalOptions has indicated that the firm has yet to be contacted by law enforcement regarding this matter.
In the short term, look for more attention here as the U.S. government has become more and more antsy over the influence of somewhat questionable characters from the former Soviet republics,
who with the help of formerly high ranking officials in the U.S defense and intelligence communities now in private practice, have insinuated themselves quite aggressively into the U.S. business community.
If ol' John McCain pulls an upset victory off in a few weeks
perhaps Mr. Deripaska's fortunes might turn around a bit?-- MDT
Labels: Alexander Mirtchev, GlobalOptions, Oleg Deripaska, Thomas Ondeck
10/13/2008
Time For Whiney Wallstreet CEOs to "Man Up"?
Honsestly, it just made me laugh that
this guy actually used the phrase "Man up." "Man up" is something you do mid-way through your bachelor party weekend.... not in the midst of a financial crisis.
-- MDT
Labels: man up
10/12/2008
For Those Keeping an Eye on the Pat Harrington Case
Ciena Capital, the successor entity to the infamous Business Loans Express (BLX),
has filed for bankruptcy.
-- MDT
Labels: Allied Capital, BLX, Ciena Capital, Patrick Harrington
A Little Ideoblog Love via Science Daily
10/11/2008
Check in on Bear Stearns Investigation
Not looking pretty for Cioffi and Tannin...
-- MDT
Time For a New Website
Lets be candid... It is quite nice for an investigator
to get press like this, but it doesn't help
when your website looks like this.
-- MDT
Labels: Pallorim
10/09/2008
A Look At Siemens New Sherriff
Interesting profile of Peter Solmssen, Siemens
newish general counsel and all around overseer of the company's anti-corruption efforts. Some re-hash here of Siemens recent travails, but also some decent handicapage of how Solmssen may fare in keeping the massive conglomerate on the straight and narrow. All via the, sadly soon to be discontinued,
International Herald Tribune.
-- MDT
Labels: general counsel, General Re, Peter Solmssen, Siemens
10/08/2008
Kroll is Hiring
PWC Slammed in $100 Million Settlement
Indicted Milberg Plaintiff, Howard Vogel Sentenced
For his role in the firm's decades long, multi-million dollar plaintiff kickback scheme,
mortgage broker Howard Vogel has received a sentence of three months in prison. Vogel plead guilty back in 2006 and served as a witness in the prosecutions case against Milberg Weiss and former Milbergattorney, Bill Lerach. For more on Vogel's connection to the case
see here.
-- MDT
Labels: Howard Vogel, kickbacks, Milberg
The Dantes / Kroll Wiretapping Story Lands in the WSJ
Prison Consultant Sees a Lot of White Collars Behind Bars in Out Future
Interesting comments on a coming boom from Geoff Mousseau (who according to the byline wrote this article about himself?) of White Collar Sentencing Consultants, which advises soon-to-be executive jailbirds about how to prep for their prison terms.
In other news... A company exists that does this.
More on
the slew of criminal investigations spinning out of the mortgage meltdown.
-- MDT
Labels: Geoff Mousseay, Prison, white collar crime, White Collar Sentencing Consultants
10/06/2008
DC Press Club Panel on Journalists Turned Investigators
If you are local to the DC area and connected even tangentially to the PI. biz, I'd highly recommend checking out a panel this evening at the National Press Club. The event, focusing on
"Journalists Turned Full-Time Investigators," has some great speakers (and noted investigators) lined up, including:
- Gary Cohen of Orpheus LLC - a former US News investigative reporter.
- John Mintz of The James Mintz Group - a former Washington Post investigative reporter.
- Ken Cummins of Capitol Inquiry - a former CityPaper writer and editor, CityPaper.
- Kathy Lavinder of Security & Investigative Placement Consultants - a former ABC News producer.
- Michael Boland of Dome Advisors - a former lobbyist who now runs a Wall Street consulting firm utilizing freelance journalists.
The whole shebang starts at 6Pm today and takes place in the Eric Friedheim Library Classroom at the National Press Club this evening. I regret that I won't be able to make it myself but I highly encourage you to attend. This looks to be excellent.
10/02/2008
Serious Fraud Office Getting More Serious
10/01/2008
TYCO - Clean Living After Scandal
Itching to Indulge Your Inner Scribe?
Haliburton Bribery Investigation Continues
Harpers brings you up to date on the story, including details on the recent guilty plea of a former Haliburton executive, Albert “Jack” Stanley, who last week copped to bribing Nigerian officials.
-- MDT
Labels: bribery, Haliburton, Nigeria
Kroll and the Fate of Daniel Dantes
Lerach Moved Up to Medium Security Prison
You guys probably
caught this before I did - famed litigator and current inmate,
Bill Lerach was recently moved to a more secure
facility after committing the gross
faux pas of offering a guard his season tickets to the
San Diego Chargers.
-- MDT
Labels: Bill Lerach