(By Joe Koletar) It is an old saying in every branch of the military. It stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!” It reflects the reality that we often tend to over-plan and over-prepare, to limit risk and increase our chances of success. While a fair degree of planning and preparation is necessary, too […]
The“A.B.C.s”: How can we distinguish them? Sniffing out the Bad Apples, Bushels and Crops From the first conversations of a team dedicated to understanding the human side of fraud we collectively came to realize that there were multiple problems in the conceptualization of fraud that needed to be tackled. This team was first assembled at […]
(A NEW VIEW) (By Joe Koletar) We frequently have a tendency to gloss over Letters to The Editor, since they are usually over-heated opinion pieces. Some of them, however, are worth our attention. In the October 10, 2015 edition of The Economist magazine there is such a letter on page 18, titled “What VW Knew.” […]
(By Joe Koletar) It is the title of an old rock‘n roll song by Sonny and Cher. It also seems to capture today’s tone with regard to organizational misconduct. In the last six months we have seen FIFA (the international soccer federation,) VW (the car manufacturer which seems to have fiddled with emissions controls,) and […]
(IS THE U.S. THE WORLD’S WATCHDOG?) (By Joe Koletar) At first glance, soccer balls and Volkswagen (VW) automobiles do not seem to have much in common, but let us look at the two situations a bit more closely. On September 24, 2015 the Wall Street Journal carried the following article on page A-1: “VW CEO […]
Daven’s 7 Internet Safety Rules 7 Rules to stay safe from predatory tactics and fraud on the internet As a father of social media savvy children and an author on the behavioral forensics of fraud, considering how people harm each other on the internet has been top of mind for me for several years. […]
When Values Rot in the Bad Apple: Understanding the changing of the fraudster’s mind from sweet to sour (by Daven Morrison, with Ken Cramer*) One of the most perplexing questions in fraud prevention is how to halt the theft before it starts. In parallel to the challenge of helping individuals and organizations not fall victim […]
Financial War Profiteering Why you should care when “Rain Man” takes the fall for the Multi-billion dollar LIBOR fraud We live in a society in which the elites have maybe more power than they’ve ever had and a greater share of the wealth than they ever had in a very long time, but its not […]
(By Joe Koletar) Whistleblowers have, to many, achieved an aura of James Bondesque mystic. The lone wolf, privy to sensitive information, who shrugs off risk. The lone voice in the wilderness, borne on the wings of truth and justice, who navigates the reefs and shoals put up by the opposition, to arrive at the shores […]
(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 […]