White Collar Crime and Fraud Podcast

Elizabeth Holmes is a direct descendent of Charles Louis Fleischmann, a Hungarian immigrant who founded the Fleischmann's Yeast Company.  She attended Stanford University, studied chemical engineering and had a background in working in biotechnology.  In 2003, Holmes started Theranos corporation ("Theranos" is a combination of the words "therapy" and "diagnosis.")  which claimed it...

In 2020, Keith Raniere, the founder and leader of NXIVM, was sentenced to 120 years for multiple crimes including sex trafficking and racketeering.  His organization, NXIVM, began as a "self-help" and "self-development" organization that supposedly provided programs for self-improvement for people.  However, by 2018, many people including India Oxenberg, daughter of actors Catherine Oxen...

The Fraud Triangle is a very powerful tool used by fraud investigators and anti-fraud professionals in helping to determine how fraud occurs and looking for possible behaviors where fraud is involved.  In this episode, we examine the Fraud Triangle.   Opening and Closing Music: Penguin music - ModernChillout - Background Music [NCS Release]

Excitement is a core human emotion.  We like the feeling of excitement.  Excitement invokes a visceral influence which can make life enjoyable, at least certain parts of it.  But white collar criminals and fraudsters are also aware of how powerful an emotion is excitement and, more importantly to them, how it can break down our ability to think rationally and critically analyze deta...

Look at a map of the world.  Now look at the country of Iceland and the island of Greenland (the largest island in the world).  Iceland has some glaciers but, by and large, it is warmed by geothermal energy and is a nice place to live and has been a nice place to live for over a thousand years.  But we call it "ICE-land."  Greenland, however, is covered by a massive glacier and...

I apologize to my listeners for the long delay between episodes.  Work has been very demanding recently and, in addition, I went on a family trip to the United Kingdom.  While I was in London, I was amazed to find shell games and three-card monte games on the streets of London.  These games are literally thousands of years old and the operator of these games can make certain that th...

In January 2020, like most people, I was planning my year.  I had a vacation planned with my family, my trial schedule set (more or less) and an idea of achieving some goals I had set out for myself.  Also in January, I began hearing of a strange virus that originated in Wuhan, China.  Once again, like most people, I ignored it as I thought it would not affect my life.   I was,...

Corruption is a major factor in the world today (unfortunately) but this is nothing new.  Corruption is as old as human civilization itself.  But in the modern world, corruption can affect the economic and  social development of countries In this podcast, I discuss corruption and the negative (and sometimes paralyzing) effect it can have on entire nations.  Opening and Closing...

PTL - People that Love!  PTL - Praise the Lord!   Or -PTL - Pass the Loot.  If you were alive in 1980s' in the US, you would hear the words of Jim and Tammy Bakker on the PTL network.  According to Jim Bakker - PTL stood for People that Love or Praise the Lord.  But as investigations into the financial improprieties of the PTL network learned, much of the monies that were...

Ra-Ra Rasputin, Lover of the Russian Queen!  There was a cat that really was gone!  Ra-Ra Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine!  It was a shame how he carried on!  (song by Boney M - Ra-Ra Rasputin!)      Gregorij Efimovich, known to history as Rasputin, indirectly caused the fall of a 300 year old Imperial dynasty and the rise of the USSR.  Ho...

In 1965, Frank Herbert, already a well-known science-fiction writer, published Dune.  Dune quickly became a best-seller in the realm of science-fiction and is now considered a classic of the genre.  Herbert followed up Dune with five other novels set in his Dune universe.  A 1984 film directed by David Lynch received mixed reviews but the 2021 version by director Dennis Villanueve i...

Unfortunately, Enron is not the only major financial scandal to be part of the history of Houston.  Robert Allen Standford, once knighted and known as "Sir" Allen Stanford, perpetuated one of the largest Ponzi schemes and financial fraud in the history of the United States - second only to Bernie Madoff.  Stanford was convicted for his crimes and is now serving a 110 year sentence. &nbsp...

In late February, the Russian Armed Forces invaded the Ukraine, an independent nation since 1992.  It was expected that the Russian armed forces would easily defeat the Ukrainians and the entire operation would be over in a matter of days.  As of this podcast, two weeks into the invasion, the Russians are facing severe resistance and are far from their goals of conquering the Ukraine. &n...

Hawala is a form of money transfer that dates back to at least the 8th century CE.  It is a method for long-distance money transfer which was developed during the days of the Silk Road so merchants could avoid having their money stolen by bandits and robbers.  Hawala is an extremely efficient system which exists to this day.  But in the age of terrorism and narco-trafficking, it can...

Our friend Michael Avenatti is in the news again and as such makes a second appearance on this podcast.  On February 4, 2022, Avenatti was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in relation to his representation of his former client, Stormy Daniels.  We discuss the crimes for which Avenatti was found guilty.  We further discuss how Avenatti violated one of the codes o...

Season 2.  Episode 1.  Notario Publico, Notary Public?  What's the difference?      Welcome to 2022.  In this first episode of the new year, I discuss the difference between a Notario Publico and a Notary Public.  It is a very important distinction because there exist cases of Notary Publics preying on the confusion and linguistic muddy translation...