Archive | Aug 2007
Jessica McBride calls out Eugene Kane for ignoring the truth
On Sunday, Jessica McBride had a great post on Eugene Kane, and his failure to accept the truth when it’s coming the sources. Eugene Kane is a liberal columnist for the Journal Sentinel, who is always moaning about the injustice and racism in the world. Nothing is ever the fault of the individual. It [...]
Continue reading...Mannatech CEO quits to devote more time to Mannatech
23 Aug 2007
Okay, I admit it. That headline comes straight from Zac Bissonette at Bloggingstocks. I couldn’t help it though. It’s just so…. so…. right. In July, the Texas Attorney General filed suit against Mannatech to stop the company from using illegal sales and marketing practices. The suit says that company associates have claimed the products cured, mitigated, [...]
Continue reading...Earnings management at Overstock.com?
22 Aug 2007
Sam Antar at White Collar Fraud Blog has posted the second part of his analysis of Overstock.com’s second quarter numbers, and it ain’t pretty! Looks like Byrne and company are doing even more fancy math! Yoo-hoo… SEC… are you listening? Sam says this about financial crimes: White collar crime is a crime of persuasion. Often, the [...]
Continue reading...Usana’s retail sales
22 Aug 2007
One of the criticisms leveled against Usana Health Sciences in Fraud Discovery Institute’s original report on the company is the lack of retail sales. Usana acknowledges the importance of retail sales in its 2005 10-k, on page 16 (bold added by me):
Continue reading...Multi-level marketing companies and sales to retail customers
22 Aug 2007
One of the hallmarks of a product-based pyramid scheme is the absence of sales to retail customers. Examine a multi-level marketing company like Usana or Mary Kay, and you will see that for the most part, their distributors do not have any substantial retail customer base. How do I know this to be the case? Simple [...]
Continue reading...Book Publishing: Finalizing the contract, writing the book, and meeting deadlines
21 Aug 2007
I am wrapping up writing my manuscript entitled Essentials of Corporate Fraud, to be published by John Wiley & Sons. I’ve been discussing my experience with finding a publisher and getting a book deal here. It’s been an interesting process, and not quite what I expected. In a nutshell, it has been way easier than [...]
Continue reading...United States now offers patents on business scams
21 Aug 2007
An astute reader found this at the bottom of a Quixtar (Amway) website: “This site is protected by U.S. Patent 6,980,962″ Protected by a patent? A business scam like Amway, Quixtar, whatever it’s called this week? Surely the United States government is not giving patents on pyramid schemes and business opportunity schemes? Yes, indeed. The U.S. Patent [...]
Continue reading...Did you see Sequence Inc. in the Wall Street Journal today?
20 Aug 2007
The Wall Street Journal had a special section today on entrepreneurs, and this blog was mentioned in an article entitled Blog It and They May Come. We got in both the print edition and online edition, and got linked too. The premise of the article was that blogging can increase business for an entrepreneur, but [...]
Continue reading...Utah Attorney General improperly endorsing Usana Health Sciences?
20 Aug 2007
A few months ago, the issue was raised of the Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, “endorsing” Usana Health Sciences. Staff at his office told Fraud Discovery Institute associates that the Attorney General would never endorse a company, and we reported the following in our original report on Usana:
Continue reading...Overstock.com and its phony earnings figures
20 Aug 2007
Today on the White Collar Fraud Blog, Sam Antar has the first part of a three part series on the inventory numbers at Overstock.com. It’s curious how Overstock’s inventory numbers always seem to create more questions than they answer. Sam has some insight into this. As the former CFO of Crazy Eddie, a company that [...]
Continue reading...- Is Shop to Earn a scam or a legitimate business?
- More on why ShopToEarn sucks (and so do MyPowerMall and TeamNational)
- MonaVie: Scam or not?
- Mary Kay Cosmetics: Destroying half a million women a year
- Primerica Financial Services a scam?
- The Pyramid Scheme aspect of Primerica Financial Services
- Shop To Earn lawyer bullying bloggers
- The Sarah Palin pregnancy cover-up that wasn't (updated)
- What does Dave Ramsey think about United First Financial
- A new pyramid scheme: United First Financial
- Niles: Where can the public get specific and official documentation on the...
- Barbara: Tracy I am sure you read this already but it fits you definition of...
- JoeTaxpayer: Walt, if you actually have that amount of time in the business,...
- inspectaneck: Jessica, You’re probably right. If it is so wonderful,...
- Tracy Coenen: Oh Walt. How fun. You accuse me of not knowing how interest...
- Walt: Hello Tracy, It seems that you have tried to educate yourself in...
- claysgirl: To Nienpedo I don’t know what area you live in, nor does...
- nienpedo: So I went to a “meeting” and when I first walked in I saw...
- Lee D: Excellent point, PurpleSlog.
- PurpleSlog: I have a third alternative. Most “anchors” are pretty...
- Chicago mayor promises action against city employees stealing from taxpayers
- Consumers easier to scam during tough economic times
- Searching for Shop to Earn scam
- Debunking Sarah Palin rumors and lies
- Check out the pork in the bailout bill
- The $700 billion bailout should fail on its own merits
- Criminal charges against Amway in India
- The lure of multi-level marketing
- The UFF Money Merge Account money shuffle explained
- Mark Cuban’s idea on a private bailout of the financial sector
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.
23 Aug 2007
0 Comments