LONDON — Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s largest makers of engines for commercial airplanes, said Thursday it was cooperating with the Serious Fraud Office on an investigation into alleged corruption at some overseas business operations. Rolls-Royce passed findings of an internal investigation to the S.F.O. relating to concerns about bribery and corruption at intermediaries in Indonesia and China. The findings are a matter of concern, the London-based company said. The company said it was too early to speculate on the outcome of the investigation but it could include the prosecution of individuals and the company. “I want to make it [ Read More ]
I was president and CEO of Olympus Corporation when the financial scandal broke last year, after I had exposed a massive fraud of approaching $2 billion which has subsequently become known as Japan’s Enron. Less than a month after I had been forced to leave the company, Olympus’s share price had dropped by a staggering 81.5% compared to the day before my dismissal. In monetary terms this represented a fall in market value of over $7 billion, and in witnessing the meltdown of this iconic Nikkei listed company the business world was aghast. My new book, “Exposure: Inside the Olympus [ Read More ]
By Fahmida Y. Rashid, TechNewsDaily Contributor | LiveScience.com – Mon, Nov 19, 2012 Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the start of the American holiday shopping season. Brick-and-mortar retailers gear up for it by offering gargantuan sales to get shoppers in the doors. But they’re not they only ones getting ready. Cybercriminals are prepping their online wares too. Many of the scams also target Cyber Monday, which falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving. For the past few years, Cyber Monday has been the biggest day for online retailers, who entice customers with special “one day only!” promotions. Search the [ Read More ]
November 11-17 is International Fraud Awareness Week By Hetherington Group Published: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012 – 5:43 am WAYNE, N.J., Nov. 7, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ — Organizations around the world — both large corporations as well as small businesses — lose an estimated 5% of annual revenues to fraudulent activities, according to a study conducted by the Association of Certified Examiners (ACFE) with 42% of fraudsters being employees, 38% managers and 18% owner/executives. A great majority of this fraudulent activity occurs within the 23 million small businesses in the United States that account for 54% of all U.S. sales and [ Read More ]
By Beth Pinsker Gladstone | Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Capital One Financial settlement with U.S. regulators over deceptive marketing of credit card “add-on products” means a lot to all consumers, not just Capital One customers, according to consumer advocates. This is the first enforcement action by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which is about to hit its first anniversary. Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of advocacy group U.S. PIRG, says it’s significant to the future of the agency that this first move was against a big company over a pernicious practice. “This is a big event for a [ Read More ]
Pay for chief executives has skyrocketed over the last two decades, and a new study found that the way executives use their wealth has a direct impact on how their companies operate. “Unfrugal” CEOs — those who spend their massive salaries on luxury goods — aren’t more likely to commit fraud in their personal business dealings. Their companies, however, are more likely to commit fraud, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research: However, as predicted, we find that unfrugal CEOs oversee a relatively loose control environment characterized by relatively high probabilities of other insiders perpetrating fraud and unintentional material [ Read More ]
Survey of More Than 900 Auditors From Firms of All Sizes See Huge Fraud Risk BRENTWOOD, Tenn., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — More than 37 percent of auditors expect to find fraud among their own clients, according to a new survey of more than 900 auditors conducted by Confirmation.com, the creator and leading provider of secure audit confirmation services. The survey polled global users of the Confirmation.com system, which includes all of the top 100 accounting firms. Auditors were asked about the perceived risk of uncovering fraud during the annual audit process and more generally about finding fraud [ Read More ]
Dragados USA-Judlau JV paid less than $5M for work performed, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says By Robert Gearty / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS The lead contractor on the MTA’s East Side Access project will pay $7.5 million to settle civil fraud charges arising from its use of minority-owned front companies, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced Wednesday. Prosecutors had charged contractors lied to make it appear they had complied with a legal requirement to hire minority businesses as subcontractors for the federally funded project. Dragados USA-Judlau JV had reported that it had paid about $17 million to the firms when [ Read More ]
BRIDGEPORT, Conn.—A Naugatuck woman has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for participating in a scheme to defraud Webster Bank and Bank of America of $6 million. Susan Curtis was sentenced Thursday in U.S. district court in Bridgeport. She pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax charges. Federal authorities say Curtis was working for the property services division of Webster Bank when she duped it into paying $5 million in fees to two companies she and her husband established. U.S. Attorney David Fein said Curtis stole from her employer to buy luxuries such as cruises and artwork. [ Read More ]
The Associated Press March 19, 2012, 7:13PM ET George Tannous, a former IRS agent was sentenced to three years in federal prison for taking part in a securities fraud scheme that defrauded hundreds of people out of more than $8 million. Tannous solicited people to buy unregistered stock in his company Bidbay.com, which developed and marketed an internet auction website, with the promise that the company was going to be acquired by eBay. If you are aware of someone committing securities fraud, you may be entitled to a monetary reward. Contact the Law Offices of Stephan T. Mashel today for [ Read More ]
By CHAD BRAY, REED ALBERGOTTI and MATTHEW FUTTERMAN | Wall Street Journal For the owners of the New York Mets, settling a lawsuit over their investments with Bernard Madoff apparently was as much about their reputations as it was about the money. Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee for Mr. Madoff’s firm, had sued the Mets owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, as well as their families and business associates for more than $300 million they invested with Mr. Madoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges three years ago. The Mets owners, in a deal announced Monday, agreed to settle the [ Read More ]
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH (@megcourtney) and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) | ABC News March 1, 2012 In the wake of an ABC News undercover investigation, federal authorities in Texas are investigating how an active 82-year-old grandmother was diagnosed as homebound, with a range of ailments that she did not have, including Type 2 diabetes, opening the door to potentially tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payments for home health care, supplies and equipment she did not need. A hidden camera recorded the undercover grandmother’s visit to a doctor in McAllen, Texas, where she told the doctor and nurses she exercised regularly [ Read More ]
By Ivan Oransky NEW YORK | Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:50pm EST (Reuters Health) – A University of Connecticut researcher who studied the link between aging and a substance found in red wine has committed more than 100 acts of data fabrication and falsification, the university said on Wednesday, throwing much of his work into doubt. Dipak K. Das, who directed the university’s Cardiovascular Research Center, studied resveratrol, touted by a number of scientists and companies as a way to slow aging or remain healthy as people get older. Among his findings, according to a work promoted by the University [ Read More ]
