• SEC and corporate fines

    The Securities & Exchange Commission is set to issue guidelines on fines for corporate wrongdoer. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox is pushing for standards in levying fines, and would like those guidelines available to the public. The standards won’t speak to […]

  • Stealing Red Cross debit cards

    Brian Hines and his sister, Charmaine Hines, have been charged with stealing Red Cross debit cards that were meant to go to Hurricane Katrina evacuees. A Red Cross employee researching missing debit cards came across one debit card loaded with […]

  • Not Ben & Jerry’s!!!

    Say it isn’t so! The maker of my all-time favorite ice cream suffers a fraud at the hands of its CFO? The ex-CFO of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., Stuart “Mickey” Wiles pleaded guilty to wire fraud for embezzling $300,000 […]

  • Breaking records with SEC fines

    In 2002, Xerox set a record, receiving the largest SEC fine up to that point – $10 million. The new record is now held by WorldCom, which received a fine of $750 million. Other companies that have received 6-digit fines […]

  • Wisconsin Fraud: UW-Whitewater dean “improperly uses” $50,000

    Lee Jones, the former dean of graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater “improperly used” over $50,000 on a group he founded called Brothers of the Academy. The spending was discovered during an audit. The audit report says […]

  • Milwaukee Fraud: Securities fraud tied to Quad employee

    For the second time in recent history, illegal stock trading has been tied to an employee of Quad/Graphics Inc. It is alleged that a securities broker had an employee steal copies of unpublished BusinessWeek issues, and used information from the […]

  • Forensic Accounting: A New Twist on Bean Counting

    Written by Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, CFF Wisconsin Law Journal Reprinted in the Kansas City Daily Record Traditional accountants and auditors have long been referred to as “bean counters.” Some may take offense at the phrase, but if they’re being […]

  • Fraud alerts and identity theft

    Those who have been the victims of identity theft have the option of putting a fraud alert on their credit reports from the 3 credit bureaus. Is it worth the hassle? In all honesty, a fraud alert on a credit […]

  • Click Fraud

    Entrepreneur Magazine‘s December issue includes a short article about click fraud. What is click fraud, you say? Companies can advertise their wares via pay-per-click advertisements. These are usually very short, with a few key words and a link to the […]

  • Match.com and Yahoo Personals Sued For Fraud

    A federal lawsuit against match.com accuses the company of luring customers into subscription renewals via emails from fake suitors. It is alleged that employees of match.com sent emails to members and went on sham dates in order to get subscribers […]