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1/29/2009
Halliburton is Breakin' Records!
Really? Another One?
UBS On the Clock to Release Names, Lots and Lots of Names
A Fat Win For Milberg Plaintiffs
Settlement Talks Afoot for UBS
For Corporations, Can Honesty Be a Profitable Policy?
SocGen Fraud Case Moves Slowly, Jerome Kerveil Remains a Free Man
Happy 25th, Apple!
A Billion Dollars in Phony Profit Will Raise Issues for Your Auditors
And While We're Talking Background Checks...
Satyam Flameout Means More Vigorous Vetting of Offshore Partners
Checking in on the U.S. vs Ionia Management Ruling
Raul Weil Still a Fugitive
Enron's Skilling Seeking a Way out Further Jail Time
SEC Probes The Personal Line with Job's Health
Your Kroll Global Fraud Report For January 2009...
Need a Read on the Merrill Sub-Prime Settlements?
Rash of Disappearing Money Managers Continues with Arthur Nadel
First, Lost
A Look at Obama's New SEC Chief
Milberg Defendants Head to Prison
Inauguration Day
Hope you had a good seat!
Tomorrow, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.
-- MDT
1/19/2009
Your Ten Most Unethical People in Business 1/14/2009
Nardello & Co Get a Swank New Website
Muni Bond Corruption - Not Sexy
The Best Laid Plans
Commander in Chef
Happy Birthday Daily Caveat
1/12/2009
UBS to Divest Itself of Secret, Tax Dodging Accounts
Bernie Madoff and Fraud as Boom-Time Crime
Speaking of Nick Day...
Mike Baker Back in the Fold at Diligence?
Messing With MySpace
A Late Welcome to 2009
Gary Weiss Ask the $50 Billion Question 1/01/2009
Happy New Year
Halliburton is Breakin' Records!
0 Comments.
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Really? Another One?
More PONZI for your pleasure. Meet Cosmo. But when you meet him, do not give him your money.
--MDT
1/28/2009
--MDT
Labels: Agape World, Nicholas Cosmo, ponzi
UBS On the Clock to Release Names, Lots and Lots of Names
It seems any prelude to a settlement will come with massive disclosures on the part of embattled bank, UBS. In addition to more than a billion dollars in financial penalties, UBS will be obligated to fork over "scores" of names of those the bank helped dodge the taxman via it's cross border services.
This would be in addition to the 300 or so names that have already been confirmed for authorities and against whom individual tax cases are expected to be filed in short order. As per yesterday's post, some sort of very expensive settlement / deferred prospecution deal is expected for UBS - so long as the play ball. Not good news to their loyal, if ethically challenged, customers.
-- MDT
1/27/2009
This would be in addition to the 300 or so names that have already been confirmed for authorities and against whom individual tax cases are expected to be filed in short order. As per yesterday's post, some sort of very expensive settlement / deferred prospecution deal is expected for UBS - so long as the play ball. Not good news to their loyal, if ethically challenged, customers.
-- MDT
Labels: tax evasion, UBS
A Fat Win For Milberg Plaintiffs
Yes, the firm has seen a bit of a rough patch. But this ain't a bad win... And those Madoff cases keep on rollin' in.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: Bernie Madoff, Milberg, Xerox
Settlement Talks Afoot for UBS
Estimates of the amount of money UBS helped to hide from the U.S taxman keeps going up and as investigators follow the money, the breadth of UBS's business they plan to examine has also widens. Given this potential black hole of doom for the bank, the always expected settlement talks are apparently well underway between UBS and the Justice department. No one is commenting on the record thus far, but a $1.2 billion settlement figure has been tossed around as just the thing to head off a potentially ugly felony indictment.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: Raoul Weil, tax evasion, UBS
For Corporations, Can Honesty Be a Profitable Policy?
A discussion of Siemens, BAE, OFAC and how regulation can be good for business, brought to you by the chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, Mark Pieth and Radha Ivory, a Research Fellow at the Basel Institute on Governance. Courtesy of Forbes of all places.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: BAE, Mark Pieth, OFAC, Radha Ivory, Siemens
SocGen Fraud Case Moves Slowly, Jerome Kerveil Remains a Free Man
His days as a folk hero passed, his time as a nefarious white collar rogue almost forgotten in the wake of other scandals, Jerome Kerveil is still waiting for his day in court and any conclusion could still be a year or more away.
-- MDT
1/26/2009
-- MDT
Labels: Jerome Kerveil, Societe Generale
Happy 25th, Apple!
Who's your daddy?
Get well soon Steve! And here's to another 25.
-- MDT
1/25/2009
Get well soon Steve! And here's to another 25.
-- MDT
A Billion Dollars in Phony Profit Will Raise Issues for Your Auditors
When the company is Satyam and the auditor is PriceWaterhouseCoopers it means that folks are getting arrested - in this case, S. Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Taluri, PWC's Satyam account reps in Hyderabad. All I want to know is, what does Francine think?
-- MDT
-- MDT
1 Comments.
Michael, It's worse than we thought imaginable. PwC partners reportedly admit to taking bribes to cover up the fraud!
http://www.retheauditors.com/2009/01/pwc-and-satyam-another-fine-mess-youve.html
Post a Comment
http://www.retheauditors.com/2009/01/pwc-and-satyam-another-fine-mess-youve.html
And While We're Talking Background Checks...
Bernie Madoff's epic fall might have you thinking along the same "trust but verify" lines. The L.A. Times has a few timely pointers on this front. Perhaps I'm hopelessly biased, but I think hiring a reputable corporate investigative firm is where it's at. Trusting your accumulated life's wealth to someone isn't quite the same as picking out a new dishwasher. I would think one would want to go the extra mile and seek a little professional help. An investigator may not uncover the fact that the mother of your prospective money manager ran afoul of the Feds forty years ago, but they'll unquestionably perform a more thorough vetting than you could.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: background checks, Bernie Madoff, corporate investigators
Satyam Flameout Means More Vigorous Vetting of Offshore Partners
Checking in on the U.S. vs Ionia Management Ruling
At stake in the ruling? Only the rule of law concerning the criminal prosecution of corporations.
Put simply, should corporations be held account vicariously when criminal acts are committed by an employee in violation of company regulations.
Thus far in the case the answer seemed to have been yes, and with this most recent ruling business interests were hoping for a reversal. They didn't get it.
More from the WSJ Law Blog...
-- MDT
1/22/2009
Put simply, should corporations be held account vicariously when criminal acts are committed by an employee in violation of company regulations.
Thus far in the case the answer seemed to have been yes, and with this most recent ruling business interests were hoping for a reversal. They didn't get it.
More from the WSJ Law Blog...
-- MDT
Labels: Andrew Weissmann, corporate crime, Ionia
Raul Weil Still a Fugitive
In case you were wondering...
Meanwhile, legal woes for UBS keep getting deeper.
-- MDT
Meanwhile, legal woes for UBS keep getting deeper.
-- MDT
Labels: Fraud, Igor Olenicoff, Raoul Weil, tax evasion, UBS
Enron's Skilling Seeking a Way out Further Jail Time
No doubt using the inauguration of Barack Obama as cover, Enron's Jeff Skilling took the opportunity on January 20th to ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear his appeal, seeking to have his 19 count conviction overturned. Skilling began serving a 24 year prison term in 2006. Earlier in the month he was succesful in getting at least some time shaved off of his sentence, although not so much as he would have liked. Get the handicap on Skilling's chances for further success via this piece from The Houston Chronicle.
And incidentally, look for some quote love for Wayne State's Peter Henning in both this article and the Steve Job's article below. Peter is a prince of a guy, a friend of the blog and helped found the White Collar Crime Prof's blog, which should be on your regular reading list.
-- MDT
And incidentally, look for some quote love for Wayne State's Peter Henning in both this article and the Steve Job's article below. Peter is a prince of a guy, a friend of the blog and helped found the White Collar Crime Prof's blog, which should be on your regular reading list.
-- MDT
2 Comments.
Hi,
It didn't happen the way you're claiming. Jeff Skilling's appeal was actually in April 08. When the justices returned on January 6 2009 with a ruling that did not address any of the legal points he brought up on appeal, he immediately asked for an en banc hearing - where the whole 5th Circuit reviews the case and not just the three justices who heard oral arguments for appeal. There was no "cover" in Obama's inauguration; it was just the time it took from the 6th to the 20th to write a motion for the hearing and file it.
It didn't happen the way you're claiming. Jeff Skilling's appeal was actually in April 08. When the justices returned on January 6 2009 with a ruling that did not address any of the legal points he brought up on appeal, he immediately asked for an en banc hearing - where the whole 5th Circuit reviews the case and not just the three justices who heard oral arguments for appeal. There was no "cover" in Obama's inauguration; it was just the time it took from the 6th to the 20th to write a motion for the hearing and file it.
My reference to the Obama inauguration was intended only as a humorous aside, reflecting upon the dearth of media coverage the Skilling hearing was likely to receive given when it was taking place. I appreciate your explication of why the hearing ended up on the date in question. All the best.
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SEC Probes The Personal Line with Job's Health
Many Apple investors are quite nervous (and have been for months) about the health of company CEO Steve Job's health - concerned that Apple's co-founder and key creative architect may not survive the year.
Of course, there is no particular basis for this fear, other than 1) Steve's sickly appearance, 2) his history of having beaten back pancreatic cancer and 3) his reluctant admission that he is in fact ailing... from something.
Job's stated issue is a hormone abnormality, which he'll endeavor to resolve with a six month leave absence from the company. However, it took months for Apple to even address the issue, long after speculation regarding Job's gaunt appearance had rankled investor confidence.
Whether handicapping of Job's real or imagined health is fair game for the investorazzi is something the SEC is examining, according to Bloomberg. While not suggesting any wrongdoing, regulators are taking a keen interest in how the handling of Job's illness may have impacted Apple's stock price.
Some aren't waiting for an SEC opinion and are already talking about legal action against Apple over what they see as the company's lack of transparency regarding Job's health.
-- MDT
Of course, there is no particular basis for this fear, other than 1) Steve's sickly appearance, 2) his history of having beaten back pancreatic cancer and 3) his reluctant admission that he is in fact ailing... from something.
Job's stated issue is a hormone abnormality, which he'll endeavor to resolve with a six month leave absence from the company. However, it took months for Apple to even address the issue, long after speculation regarding Job's gaunt appearance had rankled investor confidence.
Whether handicapping of Job's real or imagined health is fair game for the investorazzi is something the SEC is examining, according to Bloomberg. While not suggesting any wrongdoing, regulators are taking a keen interest in how the handling of Job's illness may have impacted Apple's stock price.
Some aren't waiting for an SEC opinion and are already talking about legal action against Apple over what they see as the company's lack of transparency regarding Job's health.
-- MDT
Your Kroll Global Fraud Report For January 2009...
Need a Read on the Merrill Sub-Prime Settlements?
Look no further than Kevin LaCroix over at the D & O Diary.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: Merrill Lynch, settlement, sub-prime mortgage
Rash of Disappearing Money Managers Continues with Arthur Nadel
Recently charged with fraud, Florida hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel has conveniently gone missing. Nadel, late of Scoop Capital, was facing down a $50 million payout due to investors when he opted to bail. Last week he left his wife and the world a note referencing his guilty conscience and a potential suicide. Of course, the suicidal don't often transfer $1.25 million to a secret swiss bank account. Here's the latest on Nadel via the Associated Press.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: Arthur Nadel, Fraud, Swoop Capital
First, Lost
Daniel Faraday with Mr. Martin Candle (or is it Chiang?) on the island in the 1960s?
Holy crap!
-- MDT
1/21/2009
Holy crap!
-- MDT
A Look at Obama's New SEC Chief
Check out this profile of Mary Sharpiro from Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post. He is not entirely optimistic. Then again, the folks at her last post are feeling a bit defensive at the moment.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: FINRA, Mary Shapiro, SEC
Milberg Defendants Head to Prison
Steven Schulman and Howard Vogel begin their stint behind bars.
1/20/2009
Labels: Howard Vogel, Milberg, Steven Schulman
Inauguration Day
Hope you had a good seat!
Tomorrow, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.
-- MDT
Your Ten Most Unethical People in Business 1/14/2009
Nardello & Co Get a Swank New Website
I am loving this. Easily the best investigative firm website I can think of, off the top of my head. Love the concept and the execution is top-notch. Flash intros are old news, but I found the use here charming and disarming - not at all what you expect from an investigative firm. Wonderful use of color. Great logo design that brings it all together. Give the Nardello site a look and then hire their web designer for your firm.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: Ainsley Perrien, Nardello, Nick Peck
Muni Bond Corruption - Not Sexy
But still bad. Ask Bill Richardson. Word is indictments are coming down in New Mexico - not for Richardson necessarily but too close for comfort, no doubt.
--MDT
1/13/2009
--MDT
The Best Laid Plans
A Businessman facing investigation fakes own death by jumping out of his own plane, which later crashes after being intercepted by fighter planes. After parachuting to relative safety, he cons the police into taking him to a hotel by telling them he'd been in a canoeing accident. From there he makes is way to a storage unit where his motorcycle was stashed. Behind him, a messy divorce and maybe some jail time - ahead of him the open road. Man, given the sheer brass balls audacity of this scheme, I was hoping to follow the story of Florida businessman, Marcus Schrenker for months - years maybe. A regular white collar D.B Cooper. Enough to make The Daily Caveat forget all about Sam Israel and his motor scooter. Alas it all ended as quickly as it began. As of 11PM Eastern, Shrenker is in police custody.
Labels: Marcus Shenker
Commander in Chef
Now that is what I am talking about.
Forgive the brief sidetrack into the political realm, but Barack Obama at Ben's Chili Bowl is what it is all about. For those not of a DC persuasion, Ben's is the THE legendary place to eat around town and has been, hell or high water, holding down a storefront at 12th and U for decades.
Yes, yes, we know that Obama would probably be just as happy dining on a healthy salad, but seeing him attack a Ben's half-smoke (DC's only indigenous foodstuff - a quarter pound beef/pork sausage) done all the way (chili/cheese/onions) is just awesome.
Viva la District of Columbia!
And welcome to town, Mr. President Elect.
-- MDT
Happy Birthday Daily Caveat
While I wasn't looking The Daily Caveat rolled on into it's fifth year. Lots of changes along the way and no doubt there are many yet to come. Thank you to all of the regular readers who make it worth doing. And thanks to all the colleagues and crooks (separate camps, for the most part) that make it fun.
-- MDT
-- MDTLabels: birthdays
1 Comments.
Happy Birthday MDT and Daily Caveat. I still remember the first time you linked to me...
Post a Comment
UBS to Divest Itself of Secret, Tax Dodging Accounts
They'll be mailing some very large checks out in the near future, which could seriously complicate tax time for a number of the nation's well-to-do. For tips on how to handle it gracefully, see the New York Times.
-- MDT
1/09/2009
-- MDT
Labels: tax evasion, UBS
Bernie Madoff and Fraud as Boom-Time Crime
Here's a great piece from James Surowiecki in the New Yorker (sent in by a regular reader /tipster), which gives a bit of perspective on Bernie Madoff's bad acts and how they fit into the history of those who have taken advantage of investor exuberance.
1/07/2009
And when I say history, I mean like the year 1700. Good stuff.
Labels: Bernie Madoff, Fraud
Speaking of Nick Day...
Anyone else notice that he has been getting a bit of quote love from major papers in the Madoff case.
--MDT
--MDT
Labels: Bernie Madoff, Nick Day
Mike Baker Back in the Fold at Diligence?
Check Baker's bio here at his Fox column, which refers to him as recently returning to Diligence - the occasionally controversial investigative firm he co-founded with former MI6er, Nick Day.
What's this all about?
The folks at Intelligence Online may have the skinny. They've just posted an article about a Nick Day buy-out of the recently founded Baker business intelligence outfit, Prescience.
-- MDT
1/06/2009
What's this all about?
The folks at Intelligence Online may have the skinny. They've just posted an article about a Nick Day buy-out of the recently founded Baker business intelligence outfit, Prescience.
-- MDT
Labels: Diligence LLC, Mike Baker, Nick Day, Precience
Messing With MySpace
You know, I once had a neighbor friend who does P.I. work brag to me at a party about doing just this sort of thing. (the dummy MySpace account part, not the despicable tormenting of teenagers thing). Of course at the time this individual had no clue of my background. I guess she thought she sounded pretty cool and cloak and dagger to the surrounding cluster of suburbanites. All I could think of was unnecessary blowback for my client and unpleasant legal bills for me. To each his (or her) own, I guess, but I do hope she reads PIBuzz.
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: blowback, MySpace, pretexting, undercover
A Late Welcome to 2009
Traveling and family obligations over, it's back to the blogging grindstone. A place to start: the White Collar Crime Prof Blog's 2008 White Collar Crime Awards...
-- MDT
-- MDT
Labels: white collar crime
Gary Weiss Ask the $50 Billion Question 1/01/2009
Happy New Year
And all that...
