Sir Allen Stanford to stay jailed

The WSJ reported that the courts have decided that Allen Stanford needs to remain in jail until his court case is completed. The judge said...

More on Satyam's Auditors

Following up on Satyam's auditors , the Times of India reports that Satyam was not audited by PwC (emphasis added): The questioning of ...

Ruth Madoff breaks her silence.

Ruth Madoff issued a statement (see this link or the full statement below). Among other things, she implies that she is leaving him and has...

Mrs. Madoff's sacrifices and Bernie's prison sentence.

The WSJ reports that Mrs. Madoff has agreed to relinquish her fur coats (valued at $49k), linens and bedding ($18k) and silverware ($9k). S...

Judge to decide if $500 k bail bond is enough to stop Stanford from fleeing

If he really is the mastermind behind a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, do you think he would be worried about losing $500k ?

More on the $134.5 billion bond smuggers

Read this for a follow up to the counterfeit bond story posted on June 18th . In short, the bonds were obvious fakes, the Treasury Departme...

A dozen years for a $50 billion Ponzi scheme

Get this, Madoff's attorneys are asking that Bernie be sentenced to a mere 12 years in prison for running the World's largest Ponzi...

Skepticism and Common Sense

While changes in financial regulation (both changes in enforcement and structure) may provide additional comfort to investors in this post-M...

The latest Madoff news...

Speaking of penalties for fraud perpetrators and their families, the Wall Street Journal just reported that Ruth Madoff, Bernie's wife,...

Penalties of Fraud

Fraud perpetrators can be especially difficult to prosecute. As a result, many fraudsters lose their jobs, but face little or no other repe...

The soap opera fraudster: Danny Pang

Danny Pang is in the news again having reportedly taken $83 million from his firm before it was seized earlier this year. Watch out for thi...

Election fraud in Iran -- check the digits...

A former student of mine, Dan Leslie, pointed out an article in The Washington Post that analyzes the frequency of the last two digits in ...

Ever heard of click fraud?

Check out this article to read about the latest evidence that whenever there is money involved there will be some fraud perpetrators trying...

International Audit Quality

Among those charged in the Stanford fraud is a former chief of Antigua's financial regulatory commission. From USA Today : Leroy King a...

Madoff in the news again...

While Bernie Madoff awaits sentencing next week, the SEC has filed new charges against individuals who allegedly marketed Madoff's schem...

Richard Scrushy: crime doesn't always pay...

The largest financial penalty ever to be levied against a single executive has been given to 56 year-old Richard Scrushy for his role in the...

Sir Allen Stanford indicted

The latest news is reporting that Sir R. Allen Stanford was finally arrested by the FBI. Stanford is being indicted for running a massive P...

The mystery remains...

Although it's been 10 days since the Italian government seized a briefcase containing $134.5 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, we still do...

Something smells fishy...

The WSJ reports : President Obama swept to office on the promise of a new kind of politics, but then how do you explain last week's dism...

The largest counterfeit ever?

Two Japanese men were caught smuggling $134.5 billion in U.S. bonds at the border of Italy. The bonds look very authentic and date back seve...

Fair-value accounting and fraud

The WSJ reported that: Wells (Fargo)'s Boston-based mutual fund Evergreen Investment Management Co. agreed along with its brokerage uni...

Great follow-up on yesterday's post...

A Colorado con man is revealed

This week's NY Times reports: The thick-muscled man with close-cropped hair who called himself Rick Duncan seemed right out of central ...

The Board of Directors Club

I have been thinking about corporate governance and the role of the board of directors a great deal lately. My thoughts keep coming back to...

Bride scams in China

While we are recovering from a real estate bubble that was at least partially fueled by government policies, China has a bubble of their own...

Fraud or tax planning?

The WSJ reported today that seven people have been charged criminally with fraud for selling tax "products" for over a decade sta...

Madoff Victims Want More

A group of Madoff victims have filed suit to change the way losses are being calculated in the fraud. Currently, losses are calculated as t...

Kozlowski's prophesy is realized...

The Wall Street Journal just reported that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a West Virginia judge had a conflict of interest in a case tha...

The buck stops here: The Board of Directors

Corporate governance has long been a concern when massive corporate frauds come to light. Today, Boards of Directors are being criticized fo...

A private equity fund gets caught with its hand in the cookie jar...

The NY Times reports on a fraud at Archway and Mothers Cookie Company and, according to the article, private-equity firm, Catterton Partner...

"Like bees to honey"

While much of the debate over our government's stimulus efforts has focused on the economic rationale for such programs and the resultin...

Making examples of Satyam's auditors

It looks like India's judicial system is a bit different than what we're used to here in the U.S. Two PricewaterhouseCoopers partner...