{"id":469,"date":"2015-06-24T12:05:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T16:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bringingfreudtofraud.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2015-07-15T05:22:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T09:22:33","slug":"who-guards-the-prison-guards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/?p=469","title":{"rendered":"WHO GUARDS THE [PRISON] GUARDS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(By Joe Koletar<\/a>) It is a question the Romans asked of themselves two thousand years ago, but still seems pertinent today. The subtitle of the news article cited below reads: \u201cCorrections Workers Convicted of Using Inmates\u2019 Social Security Numbers to Get Refunds.\u201d With the recent breakout in an Upstate New York prison and the charging of a prison staff member of assisting, the question arises again.<\/p>\n

To recycle an old line \u2013\u201cWho can you trust?\u201d Apparently, at least some watchdogs are still awake and performing their duties, but even they seem to come into play only after the damage has been done.<\/p>\n

The article, based on a 2014 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, found that false returns using prisoners\u2019 Social Security numbers had \u201csurged\u201d to 137,000 in 2012, up from only 37,000 five years earlier. If 137,000 alarms you as a taxpayer, does only 37,000 make you feel warm and cozy? What is going on? Is anybody in charge of this boat? Have we gotten to the point where our most effective response is to let the watchdogs tell us years later the number of dead and wounded?<\/p>\n

Were the issue only limited to false tax returns. The article also reports phony credit card accounts, and unpaid medical, energy, and insurance bills. The IRS reports that attempted false claims alone amounted to $1B. Luckily, only about $70M was lost, but this is just the IRS, and not other forms of identity theft fraud. But all this begs the issue. Why must we only try to \u201cblock?\u201d Are we not treating the symptom, and not the disease? The \u201cdisease\u201d in this instance is corrupt corrections personnel. The article notes that a shift clerk at one facility claimed $750,000 in false tax returns, and received $176,000 in refunds. The clerk had access to 25,000 files on current and former inmates.<\/p>\n

In the \u201cyou are not to believe this\u201d category, one corrections official is reported to have declined to respond to requests for more information on this issue, citing \u201csecurity concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is this dark comedy, or a remake of \u201cAlice In Wonderland?\u201d Either way, the question is what can or will you do about it.<\/p>\n

The ball is in your court. If you believe \u201cthat\u2019s just the way things are,\u201d you have every right to do so. To a point. You are not only wasting your money, but mine also; and millions of others.<\/p>\n

If you do not like the way things seem to be going, use every legal means to change it through reform advocacy. If you choose not to, you have made a career change. You have moved from being a \u201cvictim\u201d to being a passive accomplice.<\/p>\n

Your choice.<\/p>\n

(Observations based on \u201cTax Fraud Cases Target Prison Staff,\u201d by Joe Palazzolo, The Wall Street Journal, 3\/13\/15, page A-5.)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2015<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph W. Koletar<\/p>\n

Join us for more insights into behavioral forensics (behind fraud and similar white collar crimes) from the authors of <\/span><\/em>A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics<\/span><\/span><\/a> (Wiley, 2013): Sri Ramamoorti, Ph. D., Daven Morrison, M.D., and Joe Koletar, D.P.A., along with Vic Hartman, J.D. These distinguished experts come from the disciplines of psychology, medicine, accounting, law, and law enforcement to explain and prevent fraud. Because we are inspired to bring to light and address the fraud problems in today\u2019s headlines, we encourage our readers to come back and revisit us regularly at BringingFreudtoFraud.com.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(By Joe Koletar) It is a question the Romans asked of themselves two thousand years ago, but still seems pertinent today. The subtitle of the news article cited below reads: \u201cCorrections Workers Convicted of Using Inmates\u2019 Social Security Numbers to Get Refunds.\u201d With the recent breakout in an Upstate New York prison and the charging … Continue reading WHO GUARDS THE [PRISON] GUARDS?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}