Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 31, 2007 · 4 Comments
Yes, I spent one hour and eleven minutes on the phone with Bank of America tonight. *sigh*
It was long, but it was mostly good. I didn’t have to talk to anyone in India, so that was the best part of all.
Here’s the deal. I got a new credit card and for the life of me [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 31, 2007 · 2 Comments
A growing problem for companies is the presence of corporate moles – – employees who are stealing information and giving or selling it to outsiders (especially competitors).
Anti-fraud software maker Actimize conducted a survey on this issue, and included 40 large financial services firms in the U.S. and United Kingdom. About 50% of the companies surveyed [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 30, 2007 · Leave a Comment
This is taken from the White-Collar Crime Fighter newsletter. You can subscribe to the full newsletter here, as well as access other fraud-fighting resources.
Steve Albrecht on: The Six Signs of Internal Fraud
As executives, managers, internal auditors or rank and file employees, when it comes to internal fraud we may suspect it… suffer the consequences of [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 30, 2007 · 2 Comments
Yes, you read that correctly. Home Depot fired (former) employee Dustin Chester, who worked at a store in Murfreesboro, TN, after he apprehended a thief.
Last week, Dustin saw a man with a crowbar by a soda machine in front of the Home Depot store. He says the thief started running, and Dustin took off after [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 30, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Yesterday, a judge ruled that the IRS was not entitled to see workpapers that were deemed work product. This is a very important ruling in tax matters.
“Work product” is used in legal cases to protect papers that you don’t want the other side to see. Essentially, the attorney in a case doesn’t have to show [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 29, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Those who have been involved in high-profile fraud investigations and general scam-busting are used to getting threats. The wackos typically like to threaten jobs, reputations, and families, and the levels to which they will stoop seem to have no lower limits. No lie or distortion is beneath those who want to silence the critics.
Last [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 29, 2007 · 1 Comment
This is from TerminatedRamp on the Yahoo message board for Usana. He raises an excellent issue. The IRS already has a generally dim view on multi-level marketing because the odds of turning a profit are less than 1:100 (1%). In order for business deductions on a tax return to be legitimate, the “business” activity must [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 29, 2007 · 1 Comment
Robert FitzPatrick at Pyramid Scheme Alert reported in his recent newsletter on the class action suit that has been brought against Amway (Quixtar) by high-ranking distributors:
The lawsuit states:
* Quixtar’s (Amway and Quixtar are both part of the same company) products are so overpriced they cannot be profitably retailed.
* Only 3.4% of product sales [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 28, 2007 · 3 Comments
Studies have shown that fraud awareness training is one of the keys to preventing and detecting fraud at corporations. If employees know what fraud looks like, they can help avoid it and they can report suspicious behavior. And corporate executives agree that fraud awareness training is key (see below graphic; click on it to view [...]
Posted by Tracy Coenen on August 28, 2007 · 2 Comments
Can an analyst covering Usana Health Sciences really provide an independent analysis of the company if he is a distributor? Tim Ramey covers Usana for DA Davidson. Isn’t it kind of weird to cover the company and to be a distributor? And at the very least, wouldn’t this be an important disclosure to make before [...]
Next Page »
