Bob Jensen's Enron Quiz (and answers) --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnronQuiz.htm

Rise of Scams After Coronavirus Outbreak ---
https://readwrite.com/2020/03/22/rise-of-scams-after-coronavirus-outbreak/

Uncovering the Fraud:  Was Jesus Married ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/the-unbelievable-tale-of-jesus-wife/485573/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20200329&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0

She Bilked Japan’s Banks in the Run-Up to the Lost Decade ---
https://www.ozy.com/flashback/she-bilked-japans-banks-in-the-run-up-to-the-lost-decade/95409/?utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyDose%20%282020-03-21%2015%3A46%3A05%29&utm_content=Final

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Despite never having built a working product, Theranos accumulated hundreds of patents. These patents are now the only thing of value left but the patents aren’t valuable because of breakthrough science, the patents are valuable because they can be used to force people who do breakthrough science to cough up part of their return ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/03/bullshit-patents.html

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on February 29, 2020

Email scams—often riddled with typos and written by non-native English speakers in Africa—were once crude attempts to steal money from inexperienced computer users. No more. Federal investigators say these scams have become sophisticated frauds that are costing American businesses and individuals billions of dollars a year.

US museum Dead Sea Scroll collection found to be fakes ---
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51916849

Wells Fargo agrees to $3B settlement in fake accounts case ---
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/wells-fargo-settlement-fake-accounts

Dark Web --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_web

A dark web tycoon pleads guilty. But how was he caught?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615163/a-dark-web-tycoon-pleads-guilty-but-how-was-he-caught/

California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalPERS

CalPERS Legacy Assets: How Much in Overvaluation Has CalPERS Been Hiding?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/03/calpers-legacy-assets-how-much-in-overvaluation-has-calpers-been-hiding.html

Prosecutor Frauds:  Corruption in Asset Forfeitures ---
https://reason.com/2020/03/25/michigan-county-prosecutor-charged-with-embezzling-asset-forfeiture-funds/

ERISA --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Retirement_Income_Security_Act_of_1974

Unbelievable: ERISA’s Broken Promise ---
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3430686

A central but generally neglected objective of federal regulation of pension and welfare benefit plans was to improve overall economic efficiency by providing workers with accessible and reliable information on which to base their career and financial planning. Simple dissemination of plan terms and financial data (full disclosure) cannot achieve that objective because few workers are equipped with the skills needed to evaluate the costs and benefits of complex retirement saving or health care programs. For that reason ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, requires curated disclosure of plan-related information: it must be presented a format that is both understandable to the average plan participant and sufficiently complete to empower workers to make best use of the program. The length and complexity of most employee benefit plans creates tension between understandability and completeness, calling for tradeoffs to achieve optimal disclosure.

Cryptocurrency --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

MIT:  This is how North Korea uses cutting-edge crypto money laundering to steal millions ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615324/north-korean-hackers-cryptocurrency-money-laundering/

University of Central Florida  to fire 3 faculty members accused of helping student get PhD in exchange for grants ---
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-ne-ucf-fake-degree-professors-20200127-b2qpqedpa5eafcmvlculcrnzla-story.html?cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279

UCF plans to fire two professors and the director of its Institute for Simulation and Training because they helped a student fraudulently obtain a doctoral degree in exchange for the student helping the institute secure grants, the university announced Monday.

The university also started the process to revoke the student’s PhD, which, UCF documents show, was completed using work from other students and amounted to plagiarism.

“There was a quid pro quo between” the graduate student and one of the professors, “providing funding in exchange for a PhD from UCF,” according to an investigative report by a Washington, D.C., law firm hired by the university.

The student also may have violated federal bribery laws, the law firm report said. The dissertation appears to be based on research he “neither designed nor conducted,” it added.

UCF officials began an investigation in 2016 when someone called a university hotline to report a student was “being unusually helped” in exchange for “providing and overseeing research funds” for a lab at the Institute for Simulation and Training, letters sent to the three employees show.

The student worked for an “agency” that provided research funding, the documents show. That agency had been making grants to the institute since at least 2007 and has been one of its “most significant sources of funding,” said the report by the Cohen Seglias law firm.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on professors who cheat ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

Owner of DC-Area Tax Preparation Business Pleads Guilty to Fraud Filed False Returns for Herself and Clients ---
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owner-dc-area-tax-preparation-business-pleads-guilty-fraud

The latest risk coronavirus poses to investors is 'substantial' fraud, SEC warns ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/coronavirus-sec-warns-investors-fraud-scams-combat-wuhan-stocks-microcaps-2020-2-1028873663

Linguistics:  How do scammers use language to trick their victims? ---
https://daily.jstor.org/the-life-changing-linguistics-of-nigerian-scam-emails/

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on January 28, 2020

Airbus has reached a preliminary agreement with fraud agencies in the U.S., U.K. and France over a longstanding investigation into bribery and corruption.

Airbus will settle fraud charges ---
https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-270896/?utm_source=pdb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=January%2028%2C%202020&variable=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&utm_term=OZY#article271461

Ponzi Scheme --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

Rhode Island Property Developer Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for $10 Million Ponzi Scheme and Obstructing IRS Investigation ---
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/rhode-island-property-developer-sentenced-eight-years-prison-10-million-ponzi-scheme-and

Another Obama Solar Company Burns Out – DC Solar Owners Plead Guilty to Largest ($1 billion) Ponzi Scheme in Eastern California History ---
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/another-obama-solar-company-burns-out-dc-solar-owners-plead-guilty-to-largest-ponzi-scheme-in-eastern-california-history/

A couple pleaded guilty to scamming Warren Buffett as part of a $1 billion Ponzi scheme ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/couple-admit-scamming-warren-buffett-1-billion-ponzi-scheme-2020-1-1028844728

Ponzi Schemes Where Bernie Madoff Was King
See http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRottenPart2.htm#Ponzi

KPMG:  How Accountants Took Washington’s Revolving Door to a Criminal Extreme ---
https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2020/01/how-accountants-took-washingtons-revolving-door-to-a-criminal-extreme/

The Astros’ Cheating Scandal Rewrites a Decade of Baseball History ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/01/the-astros-scandal-rewrites-a-decade-of-mlb-history/605185/

Jensen Comment
Houston is now the home of two of the most famous frauds in history --- Enron Corporation and the Houston Astros. But there's a difference. Enron's collapse put an end to the scandal with prison time for some of the most senior perpetrators. For the Houston Astros life will pretty much go on as usual without the collapse of the business and without prison time for perpetrators.

Bob Jensen's threads (and timeline) the Enron scandal ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Behavioral economics, it seems, might just have a bias problem of its own:  Seeing biases where non exist ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2020/01/25/in-the-news-bloomberg-january-14-2020/

Credential Fraud:  Altered Grades, Manufactured Transcripts, and Store-Bought Diplomas ---
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3513634

As Enron and Bernie Madoff once showed us the depths that people will go to hide who they really are, there are many others out there who have created entire academic profiles... and even careers... under false pretenses. This is the story of only a few of them.

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating in academe ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm

Most Common Resume Lies (Forbes) --- http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

From foolish fibs to full-on fraud, lying on your résumé is one of the most common ways that people stretch the truth. But think twice before you ship off your next half-baked job application. Even if your moral compass doesn't keep you from deceit, the fact that human resources is on to the game should.

The percentage of people who lie to potential employers is substantial, says Sunny Bates, CEO of New York-based executive recruitment firm Sunny Bates Associates. She estimates that 40% of all résumés aren't altogether aboveboard.

And this game of employment Russian roulette is getting riskier and riskier. Almost 40% of human resources professionals surveyed last year by the Society for Human Resource Management reported they've increased the amount of time they spend checking references over the past three years.

View a slide show of the most common résumé lies.

Truth of Fiction:  Top Resume Lies (Strategic HR Lawyer) --- http://www.strategichrlawyer.com/weblog/2006/07/truth_or_fictio.html 

Resume lies you can't get away with (CNN) --- http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/Careers/01/19/cb.lies/index.html

The 10 Most Memorable and Outrageous Resume Lies (DIGG) ---
http://digg.com/business_finance/The_10_Most_Memorable_and_Outrageous_Resume_Lies

Executive Lies About His MBA from the University of Southern California
Officials at the University of Southern California -- responding to an inquiry from the Journal -- told the company it had no record that Mr. Lanni had earned a master's degree in business administration from the school. A corporate biography of Mr. Lanni on MGM Mirage's Web site says he holds an MBA in finance from USC. Mr. Lanni is a longtime patron of USC, joining boards and speaking at the school over the years, Mr. Murren and others said. For example, he is currently a member of the Board of Overseers of USC's Keck School of Medicine. The university contacted MGM Mirage on Wednesday following the Journal's inquiries about a recent discovery by Barry Minkow, a private fraud investigator in San Diego, of a discrepancy between Mr. Lanni's corporate biography and a database of college degrees accessible to private investigators. (Please see related article.) Mr. Minkow said he has no investment position in MGM Mirage, but one of his employees has bought "put" options betting against the company's stock.
"MGM Mirage CEO to Resign Amid Questions About MBA," by Keith J. Winstein and Tamara Audi, The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2008 --- http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122661583489225999-lMyQjAxMDI4MjE2NDYxMTQ1Wj.html

Jensen Comment
An anonymous tip revealed that Lanni was a major fund raiser at one time for the USC School of Accountancy. Although Lanni has claimed on his resume that he has a BS in speech, it turns out that he does have a BS in Business (not from the USC School of Accountancy where he was a fund raiser).

In terms of wealth Lanni can still claim he gambled and won at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas.

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Tech giants such as Google and Amazon are deploying artificial intelligence to ferret out fraud on their platforms, but some cybercriminals are outfoxing Silicon Valley with software that is getting better at mimicking human behavior. Meanwhile, wireless-speaker maker Sonos Inc. accused Google in a lawsuit of stealing its technology and infringing on its patents, escalating tensions between the once-close partners

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates --- 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Baloney Stat BS:  Tesla is now the highest-valued automaker in US history
Tesla is now the highest-valued automaker in US history ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-price-rally-most-valuable-us-car-maker-history-2020-1-1028804022
This kind of headline should not be allowed

Why Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars are Tesla's Biggest Threat
https://www.businessinsider.com/hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-teslas-biggest-threat-2019-12

Two reasons Ford and the other larger vehicle manufacturers are  fundamentally more valuable than Tesla are financial scale and diversification. Ford owns a lot more tangible assets than Tesla that will be valuable if both Ford and Tesla fail. Ford has a lot more borrowing capacity since Tesla is so deep in debt relative to assets. Ford is much more likely to be bailed out by the USA government in times of financial emergency due to the bargaining power of four times as many employees and the dependency of local communities across the USA on tax revenues from Ford assets and employees. 

Suppose that new technology such as cheap hydrogen fuel cells make both lithium battery and gasoline powered cars obsolete. Ford has more cash, more factories, more employees, and more borrowing power (credit)  to quickly shift to manufacture of hydrogen-powered vehicles.. Tesla is stuck with one car ,manufacturing factory (using tents) in the USA. lousy credit, and many fewer employees to quickly compete in the USA's hydrogen vehicle market.

Where’s the money? Accounting for $389 million from Flint water crisis is hazy ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/wheres-the-money-accounting-for-389-million-from-flint-water-crisis-is-hazy

Accountants Behaving Badly: Ex-Senator’s Tax Guy Gets 18 Months, Embezzling $65M From Clients, Swindling Chamber of Commerce ---
https://goingconcern.com/accountants-behaving-badly-1-13-20/

Walter E. Williams --  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams

Unappreciated Crime Costs ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/01/15/unappreciated-crime-costs-n2559445?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/15/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Criminal activity imposes huge costs on black residents in low-income neighborhoods of cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia and many others. Thousands of black Americans were murdered in 2019. Over 90% of the time, the perpetrator was also black. Leftists and social justice warriors charge that what blacks have to fear most is being shot and killed by police, but the numbers don't add up. For several years, The Washington Post has been documenting police shootings in America. Last year, 933 people were shot and killed by police. Twenty-three percent (212) of people shot and killed were black; 35% (331) were white; 16% (155) were Hispanic and 201 were of other or unknown races. The high homicide rate within the black community doesn't begin to tell the full tragedy.

Crime imposes a hefty tax on people who can least afford it. They are the law-abiding residents of black neighborhoods. Residents must bear the time cost and other costs of having to shop outside of their neighborhoods. Supermarkets that are abundant in low-crime neighborhoods are absent or scarce in high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. Because of the paucity of supermarkets and other big-box stores in these neighborhoods, some "experts" and academicians have labeled them as "food deserts." That's the ridiculous suggestion that white supermarket merchants and big-box store owners don't like green dollars coming out of black hands. The true villains of the piece are the criminals who make some businesses unprofitable. By the way, these are equal opportunity criminals. They will victimize a black-owned business just as they would victimize a white-owned business. The high crime rates in many black neighborhoods have the effect of outlawing economic growth and opportunities.

In low-crime neighborhoods, FedEx, UPS and other delivery companies routinely leave packages containing valuable merchandise on a doorstep if no one is home. That saves the expense of redelivery and saves recipients the expense of having to go pick up the packages. In high-crime neighborhoods, delivery companies leaving packages at the door or supermarkets leaving goods outside unattended would be equivalent to economic suicide. Fearing robberies, taxi drivers, including black drivers, often refuse to accept telephone calls for home pickups and frequently pass prospective black customers who hail them on the street. Plus, there's the insult associated with not being able to receive pizzas or other deliveries on the same terms as people in other neighborhoods.

Another often-overlooked impact of crime is lower property values. Homes that wouldn't fetch $10,000, $20,000 or $40,000 suddenly fetch hundreds of thousands when large numbers of middle- and upper-income people purchase formerly run-down properties and fix them up. This is called gentrification, where wealthier, predominantly white, people bid higher rental prices thus forcing out low-income residents. As a result of gentrification, there is greater police protection and other neighborhood amenities increase.

Many make the erroneous assumption that black people don't care about crime. But black people strongly disapprove of the day-to-day violence that's all too common in their communities. What compounds that problem is a deep mistrust of police in poor black neighborhoods. This distrust, along with fear of reprisals by black criminals, causes an atmosphere of noncooperation with the police. It creates the "stop snitching" principle. This principle of snitches being worse than criminals themselves only exacerbates the crime problem in black communities by giving aid and comfort to the true enemies of the community -- those who prey on the community and have little fear of being brought to justice. In some cities, less than 10% of murderers are ever charged.

For decades, the problems of blacks could be laid at the feet of racial discrimination. Our ancestors started a civil rights struggle and won. Today, the most devastating problems of blacks are entirely self-inflicted such as high illegitimacy, family breakdown and unsafe communities. These problems have little to do with civil rights. But as long as blacks buy into the notion that white racism is the source of their problems, the solutions will be elusive foreve

Fraudsters Eyeing Life Insurance And Retirement Accounts ---
http://www.insurancenewsnetmagazine.com/article/fraudsters-eyeing-life-insurance-and-retirement-accounts-3788#.Xh8rI3dFycw

Current and past editions of Bob Jensen's blog called Fraud Updates --- 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Dawn Brolin's AP fraud detection guide featuring real-life examples ---
https://www.accountingweb.com/resources/the-fraud-risks-of-accounts-payable?s=bespk&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AWUS roger_011520&utm_content=AWUS roger_011520+CID_f07f85abc7a37253fa6a33fd46b1cf07&utm_source=internal_cm&utm_term=Download This Guide

One of the main reasons the USA ranks below European nations and Japan on the Corruption Perception Index is corruption at all levels of government from towns to cities to counties to states to the federal level ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
Finding a totally honest government body of politicians and administrators in the USA is a rare event.

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on March 4, 2020

Good morning. The SEC is investigating sales and accounting practices at Newell Brands, the consumer-products giant said.

The federal investigation is another setback for the maker of Rubbermaid containers and Sharpie markers, as it tries to turn around its fortunes under a new leadership team. The SEC issued a subpoena to Newell in January, after making several informal requests for information, the company said in a securities filing after the stock market closed Monday.

One focus of the probe, Newell said, is its treatment of goodwill—the premium a company pays when it buys another for more than the value of its net assets. The SEC’s subpoena relates primarily to the company’s “sales practices and certain accounting matters” from the start of 2016 onward, the company said.

Newell wrote down more than $9 billion of goodwill and trade names in 2018, one of the biggest goodwill impairments that year, according to valuation firm Duff & Phelps LLC. Newell at the time said most of the write-down reflected a decline in its market value.

The impairment was tied to Newell’s troubled acquisition of rival Jarden Corp. for about $20 billion, which added $8.3 billion of goodwill to its books and quadrupled its debt load. Despite failed efforts to meet its debt-reduction targets, Newell until recently was allowed to keep its investment-grade status.