(By Joe Koletar) Or, to paraphrase an old TV host, “Now, for a really BIG show…” Is this an example of a really big, and corrupt, Farmer’s Market? The Wall Street Journal of April 7, 2015 carried the following Page One article: “Brazil Cracks Open Vast Bribery Scandal,” by Will Connors and Luciana Magalhaes. The […]
(By Joe Koletar) We usually find it both normal and charming for a young child to make up an imaginary friend they may play with and even talk to. There comes a time, however, when little boys discard their “super-hero” costumes, and little girls discard their tin-foil “princess” tiaras. Such behavior can frequently carry over […]
(By Joe Koletar) The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is a term used for the Chinese army, air force and navy. Collectively, it is the largest military force on earth, with capabilities ranging from a foot soldier to nuclear weapons. Soldiers are required to swear allegiance to it, rather than to the people or the country. […]
(By Joe Koletar) Fox News reported on 3/11/15 that the Social Security Administration (SSA) here in the United States has 6.5 million files in its active database for people who are at least 111 years old. Obviously, 99.999% of these people have been dead for years, if not decades. But, a soil so rich is […]
The posts in this blog make frequent mention of A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics. Below, we learn more about this prize-winning book. BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF “A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics: Applying Psychology to Financial Fraud Prevention and Detection” by Sridhar Ramamoorti, Daven Morrison, Joseph Koletar, and Kelly Pope (2013, John Wiley & Sons) How widespread is the fraud: Is […]
(By Joe Koletar) It’s not hard to find the fraud of the day or week in any newspaper or media report. Our reaction is usually, “How could they do that?” But because these matters are so frequent, we now seem to have adopted a “Here it goes again” mentality. It seems “normal.” Lest we become […]
Joe Koletar served in the FBI for twenty-five years as a Special Agent and Senior Executive. Following his retirement he was an Executive in the Forensic and Litigation Support practices of Deloitte & Touche LLP and Ernst & Young LLP in New York City. His clients included General Motors, IBM, Dell Computer, Merrill Lynch, and […]
(By Joe Koletar) According to a Wall Street Journal article (“Treatment of Tipsters Is Focus of SEC, 2/26/15, C-1), the SEC has in recent months sent probing letters to a number of companies, asking for years of internal records pertaining to possible “backlash” against inside tipsters. This is significant for at least two reasons: • […]
(By Sri Ramamoorti) In two previous posts, colleague Vic Hartman addresses the $1.365 billion settlement between the federal government and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (S&P) and the miasma from which it emerged. He presents the tacit and possibly subconscious widespread collusion involved in a situation where all the players he described could dismiss […]
(By Joe Koletar) An old African proverb goes, “If you wish to travel quickly, go alone. If you wish to travel far, go together.” There is much wisdom reflected in two simple sentences. The challenge of a leader is not so much to have a vision. It is the ability – leadership – to get […]