(By Joe Koletar) It is reported 90% of Americans have cell phones. So, it appears, convicts also have their share. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners reports in the May/June edition of Fraud Magazine on the topic: “Inmate mobile phone extortion. (page 6)” It seems a fair number of inmates pass the time (pardon the […]
“Virtue is insufficient temptation.” George Bernard Shaw (By Joe Koletar) Thus starts an article, “Eco-waverers,” in the 2/28/15 edition of The Economist magazine (page 67.) The article reports a study that indicates shoppers who take their own, eco-friendly, bag to the grocery store tend to buy more junk food than shoppers who use the plastic […]
(By Joe Koletar)For a small word, “sad” seems to sometimes act as a compass that points in many directions. The issue of cheating in the Atlanta Public School system has been national news for some time, but in recent days, teachers, principals, and administrators have felt the scales of justice tilt to destroy their careers, […]
(By Vic Hartman) The Atlanta Public Schools (APS) cheating scandal will go down as the worst public schools governance failure in United States history. The cheating involved administrators and teachers systemically altering the test results of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) given to Georgia students in grades first through eighth. What Happened? The story began to […]
(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: • […]