fraud

Bob Diamond, former CEO of Barclays Bank (NYSE: BCS), has been accused of misleading a parliamentary inquiry. It is the story that doesn't want to go away. On July 2, Benzinga reported that company Chairman Marcus Agius had resigned in the middle of the bank's rate-fixing scandal. The previous...

Editor's Note: This column is part one of a two-part discussion by William K. Black. The right has a reservoir of writers who can be relied on to defend and even praise elite white-collar criminals, but the center has managed to produce eager apologists for lies. This column discusses the BBC's...

On June 13, 2011, the New York Times wrote an exasperated editorial entitled “Nearly a Year After Dodd-Frank.” The editorial began by warning that: “Without strong leaders at the top of the nation's financial regulatory agencies, the Dodd-Frank financial reform doesn't have a chance. Whether it...

If there is one thing that deserves our contempt more than anything else, it is people who preach one set of rules while seemingly unable to live up to those very same standards. Countless examples abound in business, religion and politics. One of the more interesting recent cases of "do as I say...

The aphorism is by Jamie Dimon. I took it from his March 30, 2012 Letter to shareholders (p. 8). The immediately preceding sentence was: "Low-quality revenue is easy to produce, particularly in financial services." http://www.scribd.com/doc/88143909/Annual-Report-Letter Aphorisms are pithy....

In criminology, we recognize that one of the leading restraints on the effectiveness of law enforcement is “systems capacity.”  Indeed, my mentor, Henry Pontell (UC Irvine), defined the concept.  In the context of crimes of the street (other than Wall Street), there is normally no lobby trying to...

By Neil Behrmann Global regulators are uncovering an epidemic of financial frauds in the US, Europe and Asia. So much so, that investors need to be on high alert to protect their savings from scams. It may sound alarmist, but independent auditors or lawyers should carry out spot checks on their...

On April 25, 2012, Treasury Secretary Geithner made remarkable statements about the role of elite financial fraud and greed in producing our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. In this first installment I focus on the first of five problems with Geithner’s claims: (1) he does not understand...

Presidential nominees of either U.S. party can secure economic advice from any economist in the world.  This makes it all the more amazing and sad that they choose economists with track records of disastrous policy advice. Bill Clinton chose Robert Rubin, George W. Bush chose Gregory Mankiw,...

I write to recommend reading David Roodman’s recent column in the Washington Post (“Microcredit doesn’t end poverty, despite all the hype”).  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/microcredit-doesnt-end-poverty-despite-all-the-hype/2012/01/20/gIQAtrfqzR_story.html?hpid=z3 Microcredit has...

Criminologists know that accounting control fraud causes greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime – combined.  Some of the world’s best economists, George Akerlof and Paul Romer, praised the S&L regulators’ early recognition of these frauds and set out a formal...