Bribery and Corruption: Difficult Frauds to Find

When fraud happens within an organization’s accounting system, there is often a paper (or digital) trail left behind. It’s unavoidable, as there is a record of something related to the fraud, whether it is a legitimate invoice that was later adjusted, an account balance that was changed, or a fake employee who was added to the payroll system.

Frauds involving bribery and corruption are different. They happen almost completely outside the accounting system, so they often don’t leave a paper trail. Management instead must rely on tips or other vague clues to the existence of such a fraud scheme.

Bribery and corruption typically arise out of relationships between people, so in order to detect them, management must often be aware of the personal relationships between employees and outside parties. That is clearly a difficult task, and often nearly impossible. Continue reading

More Claims of Extortionist Crystal Cox Dismissed

Vexatious litigant and extortionist Crystal Cox continues to lose her many looney legal battles. She filed a slew of similar lawsuits against a large group of people Cox thought were engaged in some grand conspiracy to deprive her of a right to earn a living. (Note: Her inability to earn a living is completely her own doing.) Those suits were all thrown out of court one by one.

The lawsuit in which Marc Randazza, his wife, and their young daughter are suing Crystal Cox for cyberpiracy and cybersquatting remains alive, but Cox keeps getting slapped down. Most recently, her order demanding that the court force the FBI or an Attorney General to begin an investigation into Cox and Randazza was denied. Continue reading

Crystal Cox Has a History of Seeking Payoffs in Exchange For Retraction

Extortionist Crystal Cox got a favorable ruling yesterday in her appeal of a $2.5 million judgment against her by Obsidian Finance. The appeals court’s ruling can be found here, and the bottom line is that the case has been kicked back for a new trial.

This does not mean, however, that what Crystal Cox does is acceptable. It just means that she gets a new shot at arguing her case in front of a jury. What does she do that is objectionable?

In this case involving Kevin Padrick and Obsidian Finance, Padrick was appointed as the trustee for the Summit Accommodators bankruptcy. It was then that Cox began her defamation of Padrick and Obsidian. When asked to remove the false materials from her websites, Cox told Padrick and Obsidian that if they paid her $2,500 per month, she would provide them with reputation management services. Normal people recognize that as extortion. In the ruling published yesterday, the court said: Continue reading

Crystal Cox Complaint Dismissed Again

I realize this is getting repetitive, but it is important for the public to be aware of the activities of vexatious litigant Crystal L. Cox.

Extortionist Crystal Cox has sued a group of defendants in at least ten federal courts (you might call this Cox v. The Internet), with crazed allegations of a massive conspiracy to ruin her life and to steal the iViewIt technology (which was thoroughly litigated years ago).

Cox has already been laughed out of federal district court in Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania. In Nevada, she has had her motions denied and her electronic filing privileges revoked.

But “try, try again” must be Cox’s motto, because she filed (an equally laughable) amended complaint in Arizona. Unsurprisingly, that complaint has been dismissed too. Notable tidbits from the order include: Continue reading

Crystal Cox v. The Internet: Motions Denied and Electronic Filing Privileges Revoked

Crystal Cox has taken several more steps down the road to being laughed out of federal court and declared a vexatious litigant. In addition to multiple federal district courts dismissing Cox’s duplicative and frivolous cases against a myriad of defendants, the District of Nevada has denied a slew of motions filed by Cox and has revoked her electronic filing privileges. (This means that if Crystal L. Cox wishes to file any further motions or other documents in the case of Randazza v. Cox, she will have to print them and send them to the court.)

Between mid-January 2013 and the beginning of May 2013, Cox filed ten motions in this case, all including rantings about identical conspiracies and plots in an incomprehensible and delusional fashion. Here is a summary of Magistrate Judge Peggy A. Leen’s orders issued yesterday: Continue reading

Cox v. The Internet: Frivolous Crystal Cox Cases Dismissed Again and Again and Again

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Crystal Cox’s incomprehensible lawsuits filed in multiple federal district courts against largely the same large group of defendants. The cases dismissed were in the Eastern District of Wisconsin (read that article for the back story on this lunacy) and District of Arizona.

Last week Crystal L. Cox was thrown out of court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The order stated that Cox could amend her complaint within 30 days, but:

…plaintiff shall not attempt to litigate claims that she has raised in other cases that she filed in Federal Court. She shall limit her claims to those in which this Court has venue pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b), and she shall state as clearly and briefly as possible: (1) the basis for Federal Court jurisdiction, and (2) how each of the defendants, named in the caption of her complaint, is involved in her claims. Continue reading

Crystal Cox v. The Internet Dismissed in Eastern District of Wisconsin

Crystal Cox, extortionist and vexatious litigant, has been slapped down by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. On May 13, 2013, Cox filed a complaint in federal court against me, and against a bunch of fine people (WIPO, Peter Michaelson, Marc Randazza, Kashmir Hill, Forbes, Kevin Padrick, David Aman, David Carr, New York Times, Jordan Rushie, Jason Jones, and many others).

The incomprehensible complaint in the case of Crystal Cox v. The Internet alleged defamation, civil rights violations, copyright infringement, civil conspiracy, racketeering (RICO), causation and remoteness, duty of care, negligence tort, tampering with a witness, tortious interference with business, anti-trust laws. Crystal Cox took 124 pages to ramble about vast conspiracies involving trillions of dollars and many bad, bad acts by many bad, bad people.

Most notably, Crystal claims that THE INTERNETS DEFAMED HER when they referred to her as an extortionist. Because who could possibly get the idea that Crystal Cox was extorting people when she flooded the internet with defamatory material about them, and then offered to remove the material (reputation management services, people!) for a nominal fee of $2,500 per month into infinity???? Continue reading

mArc RaNdaZza tAkeS bACk His NAmE

First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza is amazing. He is truly a “First Amendment Badass.” Last year, he had an unfortunate incident occur, which proves that no good deed goes unpunished. Marc Randazza briefly agreed to represent “investigative blogger” Crystal Cox in an appeal of the lawsuit against her for defamation of Kevin Padrick and Obsidian Finance.

The problem was that the judge declared that Crystal Cox is not a journalist. First amendment lawyers worried about the effects that decision might have on other bloggers, who might be journalists. Crystal Cox is not a journalist, but is an extortionist. Still, Marc worried about whether this decision could have unintended consequences. Continue reading

Stopping Crystal Cox’s Harassment and Extortion

Last week Marc Randazza, his wife Jennifer, and his daughter Natalia filed suit against “investigative blogger” Crystal Cox in United States District Court in Nevada. The suit is a treasure trove of tales about a nutty blogger who fancies herself an investigator and protector of civil rights.

The backstory has been covered here before. Crystal gained her nutty notoriety because of her attacks on Kevin Padrick and Obsidian Finance. In steps Marc Randazza, noted First Amendment lawyer, who considered representing Cox in that case. After that went south, Crystal Cox started buying domain names which included the names of Randazza, his wife, and their three-year-old daughter. She offered Randazza “reputation management services,” whereby she would refrain from posting defamatory things about him on her websites if Randazza paid her enough. That, my friends, is extortion.

The complaint summarizes: Continue reading

Crystal Cox: Still an Extortionist

Last week, an arbitration panel issued a decision in favor of Marc Randazza and Randazza legal group in a dispute with “investigative blogger” Crystal Cox. You may recall that earlier this year, Crystal Cox was up to her old tricks of defaming people on the internet, and offering them “reputation management services,” whereby for a nice sum of money she would remove the negative things she wrote about those individuals.

Cox went after Marc Randazza after becoming angry with him over his potential representation of her in another case involving extortion. The original case was noteworthy, not so much because it demonstrated Cox’s fondness for attempting to destroy reputations and then offering to repair those reputations for a large sum of money, but because the judge ruled that Crystal Cox is not a journalist. (This is not to be confused with “bloggers are not journalists,” which some people incorrectly reported after a key decision in the case. The decision was only that blogger Crystal Cox is not a journalist.) Continue reading

Fraud Files Forensic Accounting Blog

Commentary on fraud, scams, scandals, and court cases.

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