Archive | Oct 2006
Scam Busting: The Mary Kay plot thickens
When I first became interested in doing a detailed investigation into the “anti-Mary Kay” world, I did so mostly as an observer. I visited chat rooms and discussion boards to witness opinions on the products and the company, as well as to find out about other sources of information. My quest for information led me [...]
Continue reading...New SEC guidance regarding errors to be reported on 10-Ks
03 Oct 2006
Comments Off
The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued guidance for companies that need to correct errors for prior period financial statements. At issue is materiality. While an error in one year may not be material, a build-up of similar errors over time may create a total error that would distort results materially if the [...]
Continue reading...Scam Busting: Why pick on MLMs?
03 Oct 2006
Comments Off
In researching multi-level marketing (MLM) opportunities, I found some common threads that bothered me. MLMs are generally legal, while pyramid schemes are generally illegal. Yet if the MLM business opportunities are legal, why would I be interested in researching them and calling them scams? Even though these “businesses” may not directly violate any laws, they [...]
Continue reading...Carnival of Fraud #5
02 Oct 2006
Comments Off
This week’s Carnival of Fraud features blogs that are dedicated to the topic fraud and scams. Rachel Dollar of Mortgage Fraud Blog discusses a Georgia lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud. In his scheme, he purchased 4 condominiums and represented to the loan company that the cash out of the deal [...]
Continue reading...Bank of America sends Matthew Shinnick to jail
01 Oct 2006
Is this a fraud committed against an innocent citizen, or what? Clark Howard highlighted this story on his website. Matthew Shinnick went to Bank of America to verify the validity of a check he received for someone who bought two bikes from him through CraigsList. The bank said that the account the check was drawn [...]
Continue reading...- Mary Kay Cosmetics: Destroying half a million women a year
- A new pyramid scheme: United First Financial
- Ufirst Money Merge Account: Resistance is futile
- Vendor talks, Usana squawks
- The Sarah Palin pregnancy cover-up that wasn't (updated)
- $3,500 wasted with United First Financial, per Dave Ramsey
- What does Dave Ramsey think about United First Financial
- Why can't I pee on my neighbor's lawn?
- United First Financial agent compensation plan
- Searching for Shop to Earn scam
- Craig: Hello Roger, or should I say UFirst Agent No. 864081? How is your...
- Craig: In fact, Quicken and MS Money are far better quality products, and...
- Tracy Coenen: The sad thing is that the quality of the $200 product will be...
- Roger Carman: Ms. Tracy Coenen: Your research capabilities are non-existent....
- Susan: Hello, I am a Happy user of the MMA v4 product. Everyone has a right...
- The Stein: Wellllllllll….here is the another greedy and destructive...
- resident: Tracy, first off let me say thank you so much for all of your...
- mark: Classic, never sure why everyone is always bashing MLM’s. I have...
- Smarter than STE members: This is a very dangerous company. It has a genius...
- Jeff Bowyer: Timothy Sykes is a hypocrite. After I discovered severe...
- United First Financial broker numbers and earnings
- No Surprise: The “bailout bill” is falling apart
- More gifts from the government for the financially irresponsible
- Credit card company bailout next?
- Election fraud and the future of America
- Why audits are near worthless (yes, internal audit too)
- Bailout head Neel Kashkari wants transparency (except when he doesn’t)
- Overstock.com executives subject to clawback provision in Sarbanes-Oxley?
- Milwauke Public Schools: Obscene property tax increase
- But there’s no evidence of voter fraud!
About the Author
Tracy Coenen is a forensic accountant and fraud examiner who investigates white collar crimes, including cases of financial statement fraud, embezzlement, tax fraud, and insurance fraud. She is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud and more than 100 articles on fraud featured in industry publications.
05 Oct 2006
0 Comments